Slowing Down School Lunch

Well, I started off this semester with reading some blogs that others have posted. I came across Samantha's blog about school lunches not providing the correct nutrients and calorie intake. It was a great article and it spiked my interest in another topic that I am concerned about when it comes to school lunches. Are our students allowed enough time to sit down and eat their lunches? My oldest daughter just started kindergarten and she enjoys taking her lunch every once in a while, but every time she brings her lunch box back home it would still have food in it. I would ask her why she only ate half of her sandwich, or why she didn't even touch her grapes (which by the way are her favorite). She would always respond by saying I didn't have enough time. When she tells me that she doesn't have time to eat her lunch, I wonder if she is getting the healthy nutrition that she needs? So back to the question at hand, do students have enough time to eat their lunch?

I found this article that asked this same question. Cardiologist Dr. Agatston believes that having a real sit-down meal at lunch will help improve a child's health and eating habits. In this article he explains that having a sit-down meal at school is a great learning opportunity for the children. Some people are still optimistic though. They argue that our kids are becoming more obese, so do they need more time to stuff food in their mouths? Dr. Agatston explains that many kids are malnourished, whether they be heavy, thin, or middle weight. He says that it is do to the bad eating habits that they obtain. I would have to agree with this, since just because a thin child is thin, it doesn't mean that he/she is being fed the proper foods. Another point that I found interesting about this article was the effect that children have on their parents. They gave the example of showing children the stop smoking campaigns at school, and then the children coming home and throwing away their parent's cigarettes. This is so true, because I used to do it to my grandma. I would throw them away or hide them because I was taught that they were bad at school. So won't this apply to the way children are taught to eat at school also? Maybe they can influence their family to have more family table time, that in return could help everyone's eating habits.

While I was researching this topic, I came across another article in The Washington Post that was a different take on more time for lunches. The author, Jay Mathews, brought up that children are starting to fall behind and need to catch up. He also brought up the issue of making school days longer to fulfill this, which is a whole other issue that we won't get into right now. Where would the budget be for this, and who wants to do this? Anyway, he came up with the idea to create longer lunch periods, not for the sit-down experience, but to add a reading period within it. This is a complete opposite view of what I talked about above. He even suggested taking away hot lunches and serve box lunches. I would have to completely disagree with this. Children need a variety of healthy foods in their life. There is still the argument that schools are not providing all healthy foods, but the food administration is working on coming up with higher quality, nutritious meals. I also don't want my child to eat a pb & j and potato chips every day. He went on further to say that the lunch room was not even needed. They could just stay at their desk and be served the box lunch. If they wanted to eat they could, if not they could read a book. Again, I would have to disagree. I think that the student needs that break. They need that social time to spend with their peers. In my opinion, I feel that this does help children realize the importance of sitting down at a table to eat, and that it is not okay to eat in front of the tv or in their room, which is another cause of unhealthy eating habits and lifestyle described in another article I found here.

Overall, I feel that schools need to allow children enough time to eat their lunch, so that they can live healthy and perform well in school. I also believe that it should be a real sit-down experience. There may be many different ways to achieve this, so I say find the best for your school and go with it.