Pro for Healthy Hunger Free-Kids Act

The Healthy Hunger Free-Kids Act wanted to focus on child nutrition and lunch programs in school across the country. Many nutrition standards that were changed since the law was implemented and also more government spending was used. I believe that the Act is working because I do think that it has impacted the country of how nutrition is important and it affected children to actually eat more fruits and vegetables.

I am not looking at this act as a politician but as a citizen and a student who experienced eating school lunches. As a student, I ate school lunches almost every day and I recall there was improvements when the lunches are being served. Instead of only picking one fruit you can pick two fruits and instead of a main entrée you can have a chicken salad as a main entrée. I  mostly stratified with the lunches that are being served as there more options for me to choose and I was aware that the foods that I am eating was more healthier than eating fast foods.

The Act is working because the USDA was able to make regulations on improving the lunches using the National School Lunch Program. Since 2010, the USDA made schools to have fresher meals and more serving of fruits and vegetables. This was the first one of the first initiative that the Act wanted to do and if this was not implemented immediately, the chances of schools giving more serving of fruits and vegetables will be small just before the Act was implemented.

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Another factor that the Act is working because it can help childhood obesity. If children are exposed on eating fruits and vegetables, it can affect them to eat healthier foods. Childhood obesity has become a problem across the United States and the Act is taking action to lower the childhood obesity statistics. Reports indicated that the childhood obesity was about 17 percent in 2012 but since the Act was implemented there was a small decrease. Even though it is just a small decrease, through the Act’s healthier lunch regulations truly helped the results.

A third factor that the Act is working because it not just looking out to school lunches but also to several programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), the Summer Food Service Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program. These programs not only focuses on children but also for adults. The act has helped many families through their programs by assisting care centers, programs for pregnant women about taking care of infants and nutritional care, and assisting low-income children to still have nutritious meals even though they are in summer vacation.

Although I think the Act is beneficial and it is working I do have concerns about how children are throwing their lunches away and it is impacting government spending of the act. As children will throw away their foods because they simply don’t want the food that is being served in their school cafeteria, budgets of school is most likely to be wasted and it doesn’t benefit both the schools and students.

Overall, citizens across the country should see how much improvement that the Healthy-Hunger Free Kids Act has changed child nutrition for the past 5 years. Parents should know that the government is concerned about the wellbeing of young citizens of the country especially what they eat. The Act’s purpose was to have children to avoid the childhood obesity and childhood hunger.

How well is the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids act working?

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Ever since the Healthy Hunger Free-Kids Act was implemented in 2010, schools nationwide has focused on serving healthier lunches for the students. Many people are divided whether the act is working or not. Many of the supporters feel that the Healthy Hunger Free-Kids Act is working and saw improvement in schools implementing better lunches for children.

The number one reason why the Act is working because there was increase of schools of serving healthier lunches. According from the New York Times, “Nearly 80 percent of schools offered two or more vegetables per meal in 2104, the date showed up from 62 percent in 2000. Two or more fruits were offered in about 78 percent of schools, up from 68 percent in 2000.” The increase of serving of fruits and vegetables shows that schools are trying to implement the standards the Act proposed and students can be exposed more on eating healthier meals while in school.

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Another benefit of the Act was that is that it will help decrease childhood hunger. The National Education Association states that, low-income students can have healthier lunches for free and the expansion of more breakfast/after school meals for students. This is an important factor students who are low-income because they shouldn’t worry about what to eat and focus on other things, like studying and enjoying being a student.

Many of opponents are concerned about the increased waste that the students are doing because they most likely don’t eat the fruits and vegetables. Researchers from the University of Connecticut states, “Students consumed more of their lunch entrees (up from 71 percent of their entrée in the spring of 2012 to 84 percent in 2014), thus also decreasing food waste.” This statistic shows that children are actually trying to eat more the healthier lunches that their schools are serving them.

The Act made awareness how serious the increase of childhood obesity. After the Act was established, First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Program was established focusing teaching students to have healthier diets and regular exercise. With the Act, childhood obesity was decreased, “health experts have documented small yet promising declines in the rate of childhood obesity, which was about 17 percent in 2012…” With the Act and the Let’s Move Program, there is a promising decrease of childhood obesity and in the long run can maintain the decrease thus lowering the statistic of children being obese in the United States.

Opinions of some individuals show their support on the Healthy-Hunger Free Kids Act,  (in response of the a New York Times article that opposes the Healthy-Hunger Free Act) like Sandra G. Hassink,the president of American Academy of Pediatrics as she states, “We owe it to those children to make school meals as healthy as possible, which is exactly what the nutrition standards in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids do. It’s what parents want; it’s what the public supports, and it’s what pediatricians know is best for lifelong health of children.” Being a supporter of the Act, Hassink knows how beneficial the Act is for children. Also being an pediatrician, Hassink would know if the school lunches are healthy for students to be served.

Another opinion of one of the supporters, Katie Wilson the former president School Nutrition Association, states “Given what schools have been able to achieve, there is no reason to turn back the clock now. Any parent will tell you that feeding them well, can be a challenge, but giving our children a fair shot a healthier, more productive future is worth it.” Wilson is stating that it is a challenge for the Act to actually work in effectively. But since it has been implemented and small changes around school lunch programs are happening there is a good chance for the Act to be successful because kids are eating healthier meals.

These reasons shows the impact the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act for the past five years. This Act was made solely because for students to not just eat healthy food but to end childhood hunger. The Act is also wanting to lower children who has obesity and promote a healthy lifestyle.

Should the Healthy-Hunger Free Kids Act be Repealed?

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The Healthy-Hunger Free Act of 2010 was passed to provide a healthier lunch program for students across the country. Five years has passed and the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act was able change of how schools serve their lunches. But for opponents of the Act, they feel that the changes is not helping children to eat healthier meals and thinks that the Act is just wasting money.

157 Republicans voted for “No” when the Act was still a proposed bill in Congress.  As this Act was supported by President Obama and the majority of Democrats. According to The Hill, Republicans wants to reauthorize the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. Republican Senator John Hoeven (R-N.D.) wants to a new legislation that would change the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) regulations. He wanted to stop the USDA from lowering more sodium in meals and not making every meal to be whole grain.

The article states that “The school lunch regulations have been a lightning rod criticism from Republicans who say the healthier meals—a central component of the First Lady’s Let’s Move Campaign to fight childhood obesity—are inedible and driving up costs for schools where fewer students are participating in lunch programs.”  To many Republicans the Act is causing more government spending and feel it won’t help many students who would likely not to eat the healthy meals that are being served.  This statement also shows their opposition with First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign with childhood obesity like the same reasons with the Healthy-Hunger Free Kids Act, it would cost many government spending.

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Schools can potentially lose money because students would rather eat a packed lunch or not eat at all than eating healthier meals. The article also describes the school lunch budget nationwide, “The USDA estimates that the new school lunch standards will cost school districts $1.2 billion in additional food and labor expenses this year. Roughly 1.4 million fewer students are choosing to eat the school provided lunch.” With a large money spending for the Act every year many opponents (especially Republicans) feel that the government spending is wasted if students won’t buy/eat the foods they eat.

Modifying foods to become healthier is not helping students to eat the lunches. According to a New York Times Article, it points out that not much are changed besides taking out the unhealthier foods that children eat. According to Bertrand Weber, who works for the Minneapolis Public Schools says, “Other than mandating more fruits and vegetables, the new regulations haven’t really changed anything except force manufacturers to re-engineer products” This is a rising concern to the opponents of the Act because of how the Act is making schools to only provide whole grain based  foods. Whole grain foods are not very popular with students who would want to eat a pasta or pizza and most likely to be pre-packaged or frozen.

Time is important for schools and many students have less time to eat lunch due to their short lunch time period. Opponents believe that the Act is ineffective because students don’t have time to therefore they would throw away the lunches especially the fruits and vegetables in their lunch trays. A NPR article, shows a report from the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. It states, “…the researchers saw these students eating 13 percent less of their main entrée and 12 percent less of their vegetables. They drank 10 percent less milk, too, compared with students who had 25 minutes or more to eat. They also found more food waste among kids who had less time to eat.” This fact shows that to make the Act to be effective, schools should give more time for the students to eat food completely rather than wasting it away in the trash. In the statement, students would definitely focus more on the main entrée rather than the fruits and vegetables and one of the Act’s goals is make students eat fruits and vegetables but with this report it seems that the Act is not working effectively.

These factors about the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act shows reasons why opponents of the Act thinks that the Act is not working effectively to schools and particularly to the students who are the primary consumers of the healthier lunches. If more concerns about the Act arise, it can possible that the Act might be repealed.