Fatigue, tiredness, clumsiness: Many schools around the nation have had students experiencing these symptoms because schools have experienced having little to no protein in their school lunch meals. At Leyden, we experience the same issue with food. Schools need to have more meals with more protein and less calories so the students could be more satisfied and feel good.
School lunches are important because there has been a large increase of malnourished kids in the past year. In Illinois 1 and 2 teens are malnourished and are lacking nutrients. One study shows 12% starve no food or eat little food.(The Effects of Child Nutrition on Academic Performance). Here at Leyden at least 39% of students here are low income and are on a reduced/ free lunch, which shows some students can’t even afford lunch and when we do get the free lunch we get food that a dog wouldn’t even eat. This shows how students are becoming sick and malnourished due to their bodies not getting the nutrients and proteins it needs which they can get with the food they give us at school. It could also affect them by making them feel lazy and not be motivated enough to do anything in school as we see in the evidence., and we all know that one skinny ass kid who looks like the wind could pick him up. Another reason I have is Students have a low muscle imbalance that travels with them until they are adults, leaving them with a small scrawny looking build, and also leaving them with low strength, iron ect. Which are all many big compounds in your body that relies on you being a student and life long expands too.
To add on, schools are responsible for giving us more protein in school lunches. I say this because we see very high calorie dense food with very little protein, such as not having enough meat chicken or anything with that meal. Students have seen that people have been getting sick or not feeling good, West Leyden gives us food that has no nutrition and lacks the things we need for our body to operate. To explain this there have been many sightings of student here at west Leyden that have complained about the food significantly, either by the watery nasty salsa, stale chips but these are just some of the many options that have been said, here at Leyden students have said that the soggy, dried lasagna harder than a rock, is something they do not want to be consuming, also Leyden students have been saying how there are not that many options, we could have hot dogs on Monday then have hot dogs on Monday the following week again. To add on, our bodies are not getting protein with these “various” amounts of food choices to help build muscle and your body. Another thing to add is there are a various amount of teens who are underweight and overweight which shows how teens aren’t growing, they aren’t getting the foods they need to go along with their day and in the future, and just here at Leyden we see students falling asleep in class or just even not paying attention or even have attitude issues due to how their bodies feel and food could be one of these reasons. It could also be shown in the quality of food like here at Leyden when they give us frozen foods and not even cooked fully sometimes or even overcooked sometimes. One last one I had was poverty and low income may affect school lunches for students.
Another piece of research says 14% teens/ children come from poverty.( The New York Times). This plays a huge role for us here at Leyden because it goes to show how this percentage bleeds into our school and how many students don’t have enough to eat good. Another piece of evidence is that 18% of parents don’t feed their children right or enough(Childhood Malnutrition). We see this as a big role because here at Leyden the school tries to ensure everyone is safe but you really don’t know how someone’s life outside of school, here at Leyden our homeless rate is at 0.7% which doesn’t seem like a lot but its something which I think Leyden should focus on more, to add on this is a big role for the food they give us because some students might not even have food to eat at home so giving us a good food to eat here at school but with protein, and giving that the track and field season just started it helps to give athletes here at Leyden strength and focus to go trough and with protein all those features are promised to you, and also students to anything they do I feel like Leyden should feed us right and give us foods that would keep us healthy(The New York Times). 11% of the United States is in poverty and low income. It shows how in the state the average cost to produce a food lunch in Illinois is $3.81 which is not a lot because from my personal experience when I see the food they give us, it looks like it costs that much. Over 42% of students at Leyden are in low income status which is a big factor since Leyden ensures to provide anything a student needs. ( Illinoisreportcard). Also Leyden does receive free lunch but the CEP programs that give us our lunches should be ashamed, because I feel like the food they give us should be free regardless.
Money might be a problem to show that we could see students lacking a nutritious meal due to these issues but i feel like West Leyden should make sure to ensure all students feel well feed after every meal they serve us because students should be able to get the right amount of food they eat in school that they eat at home, i say this for the reason that students should feel energized and ready to continue their day after eating and not end up feeling the other way which we don’t want students to be feeling.
Some people would say school lunches are perfectly balanced and made to fit every student’s nutritions. School lunches are not balanced due to the fact that students ask all sharing the same common thing and what the symptoms of feeling sick after eating the school lunches, along with commonly bad food options and food quality.
To make it all make sense schools should make sure to provide more appetizing dishes for being that the lunches are free also, and provide more protein in lunches and less calories so the students could feel more full and not consume that many calories. It could also lower the symptoms like Fatigue, tiredness and clumsiness for the students and would make them feel better. By changing these two modifications it could keep students healthy and they would have consumed most nutrients for their body. And who knows? maybe text scores would even go up with these changes.
