What+programs+are+already+in+existence?

By: Cassie Audette

1) Komisar, L. (2011, December 3). How the Food Industry Eats Your Kid's Lunch. New York Times, Opinion.

This article was posted in the New York Times, written by Lucy Komisar. This opinion piece discusses the flaws and negative effects of regulating school lunches. The author discusses two main points as to why it has proven to be difficult to regulate the lunches being served through school lunch programs. The first point the author discusses are the negative reactions to the changes. Students are complaining about the food saying that they don't like fruits and vegetables, they say that the portions have gotten smaller and they are still hungry after lunch. They are also upset about the price increase. Schools must pay more money for higher quality products due to the regulations requiring them to serve more nutritious items, which costs more money. This increase in spending, in turn, increases the lunch prices that students have to pay, many of whom cannot afford this price. Although the schools have to pay more to supply the new meals, the schools make a substantial amount of money off of every meal the sell; one of the few incentives that schools get from these programs. The second point that the author talks about are the consequences of this change. In many schools there has been an increase in the amount of food wasted. Many students throw their food out, mainly the fruits and vegetables, because they don't like what is being served. There has also been a decrease in students participating in the lunch program because they are unsatisfied with the changes. This decrease in participation results in a loss of money for the school. The author concludes with stating that we are not paying enough attention to the actual health of children, schools are more concerned with the financial benefits from participating in such programs. Komisar says that we should not worry about the money but worry more about the health of the nation's children.

This article written by Komisar was useful for my overall research. Being an opinion article, it was one sided, but it did bring up some good points that may be overlooked by many people when assessing and designing school lunch programs. She discusses the negative consequences of these program which are not normally discussed or taken into account. Compared to other sources, it did not go into much detail of the programs themselves. It focused mainly on students reactions to the changes, while other articles talk about a variety of aspects that create the school lunch programs. This source will be used when discussing the pros and cons of these new programs; many other sources only state the benefits while this article discusses the downsides. Before reading this article I only thought good things about these programs, but after, I realized that there may be some parts of the programs that have been overlooked, and maybe a different approach to designing and implementing these programs needs to be taken.

2) Perlman, S. E., Nonas, C., Lindstrom, L. L., Choe-Castillo, J., McKie, H., & Alberti, P. M. (2012). A Menu for Health: Changes to New York City School Food, 2001 to 2011. //Journal of School Health//, 82(10), 484-491.

This article published in the //Journal of School Health// analyzes the progress that New York City schools have made by implementing new school lunch programs. It was New York City's goal to increase the health in the city's children as best as they could. They realized that the children would be facing a variety of health problems if nothing was changed. The city has been working for about 10 years to develop and successfully apply a new school lunch program, called SchoolFood, into the majority of public schools within the city. They have created a variety of methods that has proven to be successful; they created new nutrition standards, hired trained staff to prepare the food, created new menu items or revised old items, got rid of unhealthy food and drink options and educated the students and their families. With all of these improvements, there has been no financial burden on any of the schools and the regulations are such that schools pay very little to make the changes. These changes are also applied gradually so everyone can become accustomed to them reducing the negative reactions of students and families. This also leads to more participation which results in healthier children overtime. Participating in this program also gives schools the opportunity to reach out to the public and educate them on the importance of having a healthy lifestyle. It has been a long and trying process, but the public schools in New York City have been successful and continue to be successful with their SchoolFood program.

This article was the most useful source for my overall research. Compared to my other resources, it gave a well balanced and thorough analysis of school lunch programs in general. It discussed why there should be such programs, both the pros and cons and how to address them, it showed and explained a successful program and it also provided suggestions on how to create and be successful when implementing school food programs for others that are interested. This is a reputable source, all of the authors are either nutritionists, doctors and directors of New York City's SchoolFood program, therefore, the information provided is accurate and reliable. This article is important to my research because it mentions and discusses all parts and issues that a school lunch program should cover and address. The information from this article will provide my project with the issues that these programs should be focusing on, it provides a good example of a successful program and it has suggestions on how to be successful when applying these programs to schools. All of this information will be used in the "current programs" and "steps toward success" sections of this project. After reading this article, it is clear to me that there is a lot to think about when it comes to school lunch programs. It also has made clear that people expect for these programs to be applied and work right away, when, in actuality, it takes a long time of dedication, research and hard work to be successful.

3) Yee, V. (2012, October 5). No Appetite for Good-for-You School Lunches. New York Times.

Vivian Yee, a reporter for the New York Times, wrote this article analyzing the change in school lunches and the reactions that students had to this change. The article discusses the reactions of several seventh graders at a middle school in Manhattan, NY. These changes came about when regulations were made saying that children had to consume/ get a certain number of calories from their school lunches each day. Yee shows that the students are not keen on the idea of changing their lunches to more healthy options. Many of the children stated that vegetables are "gross" and that they just "throw them out." The students also had complaints about the amount of food they receive (decreased amounts due to the new regulations) compared to the new prices they now have to pay (prices have risen 10 cents, and many children cannot afford this increase). The increased waste of food and prices are just two of the downsides to this change. Two of the benefits to this change are that students now have the option to eat healthier food. At lunch they are provided with their normal choices as well as healthier options, but it is up to them what they decide to eat. She shows how the school is trying to keep the same meals, such as pizza, but using healthier ingredients, such as whole wheat dough and low fat cheese. The school is also working on educating students and families on the importance of eating healthier. They hope that everyone will gain a better understanding of what is and isn't healthy and why it is important to eat healthy.

This article, to me, really gave a "real" perspective of how school lunch and breakfast programs really do affect the students. I think many of these new lunch plans are a good idea, but after reading this article I question if the responses of the children have been taken into account; it is clear that many children don't like the changes in the food. Maybe this dislike is due to the fact that most children just want to eat the junk food and don't care and are not aware that eating healthy is important. Another concern for many, especially for children that are not financially well off, is that it may be difficult to come up with the extra money for the 10 cent increase, which may cause some children to no longer afford school lunches. The one positive aspect of this article is that the school is trying to educate the students and their families on the importance of eating healthy; if they get through to just a few students and families, they are making a difference. It is important to look at all aspects of the change in school lunches. I now also have a better understanding of what schools are doing in order to make the food that they already serve healthier, such as using whole wheat dough, low sodium sauce and low fat cheese to make pizza. This was a very useful source for my overall research, it discusses both the pros and the cons of participating in school lunch programs. The information collected from this article will be used when discussing the pros and cons of participating in school lunch programs.

4) Programs and Services. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2012, from United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service website: http://www.fns.usda.gov/fns/

This source is a government website that has published a series of links to the various food programs within the country. Each link refers to a series of documents, provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), giving statistical data and a description for each program. For example, one of the programs listed is the National School Lunch Program. Provided, is a fact sheet discussing the background information for the program. This document talks about the goals that the program would like to meet, how thy plan on meeting them and the programs finances. There are also several documents that talk about the development of the program, public concern, nutrition, behavior and learning, school food services and federal aid. Each program listed on this site has similar documents to go along with it, providing in depth detail for each program.

This source was very helpful; it provided and thorough and in depth description of each food program that is in place in the United States. Compared to my other sources, this one provided much more background information and many more details for each program. After reading several of these documents, I became very well aware of what the country is trying to accomplish when it comes to the health of our children by creating these programs. Each program is designed to target a certain demographic and provide for them the education and healthy food that they may not otherwise receive. All of the information provided by the USDA was very reliable and accurate and proved to be successful in providing the needed information and details about each program, that any person interested in food programs would need. This information collected is pertinent to the overall project; it will be used when discussing programs that are already in existence within the United States and what they are doing to reach their goals. After reading these articles, I began to realize that these programs are important and they can make a large impact on our nations society.

5) Grainger, C., Senauer, B., & Runge, C. F. (2007). Nutritional Improvements and Student Food Choices in a School Lunch Program. The Journal of Consumer Affairs, 41(2), 265-284.

This article, published in The Journal of Consumer Affairs, discusses why school lunch programs are important, multiple other factors that contribute to the success or failure and how to track the data within the student demographics, taking into account that these demographics may play a role in the success of a program. First, this article addresses the issue of childhood obesity; many children in this country are displaying obesity or other health related issues due to do an unhealthy diet. The main goal of school lunch programs is to provide children with healthy food during the school day, as well as educating them on why it is important to eat healthy. This article also discusses a study, performed by the authors, where students food purchases were tracked and recorded to see how the changes affected the student body. By giving each student an identification number, schools were able to assess what was and was not being purchased. The number also provided other factors that could contribute to the success of a program such as financial well being, gender, race, age etc. The issue with this method was that not all information was tracked successfully and a la carte items were not tracked, skewing the data. Within this article, the authors talked about one school district, Hopkins School District, that was successful in implementing a food program. The district used the identification method and using that data, made changes slowly, and because of that, more students were making healthier choices and were wasting less food because they were satisfied with the choices that they were able to make. In conclusion, it was seen that implementing such programs at a gradual pace and taking into account all demographic factors helps with the overall success of a program.

Overall, compared to my other sources, this article was the least helpful for my project. Although it provided good background information on food programs and what issues they target, it simply did not give enough information on programs that are in place today and what they are doing for our society. The majority of this article focused on ways to track the programs as well as other factors that could potentially affect the outcome. Although this was not information that I was looking for, it did raise some curiosity and questions as to how these tracking methods could be improved and used in the future. The information that was collected from this article will be used in the programs in existence, pros and cons, and steps towards success sections.