Free Public School Meals

Free Public School Meals

Linda Fernandez

National American University

Abstract

Students of all ages can benefit from nutritional meals. Sometimes the meals being served at public school facilities aren’t always affordable to some families and these families go without this important part of the day. The reason school meals are important is because there are about eight to ten hours a day in which public school facilities care for children. Of these eight to ten hours it is suggested that children eat at least two full meals. Some families are unable to afford these school meals, some are eligible for governmentally funded free or reduced meals and unaware, resulting in their children being malnourished or not fed as suggested by nutrition professionals. Such malnutrition can cause students to be less focused on learning activities, making it difficult to progress. By making issues like this entirely obsolete and providing free meals to all public school students, the country is not only supplying hungry children with appropriate nutrition, they are setting pillars for a strong and more structured future generation. Making public school meals free would also reduce the amount of paperwork included in the enrollment process of school and eliminate all of the eligibility and verification needed to receive school meals. “With increasing demand for schools to provide healthier food options, food service directors have a concern that federal reimbursement is not meeting the demands of increasing costs of healthier meals. The School Nutrition Association surveyed 1,200 school food service directors in 2009. About 77% of the respondents stated that federal funding and costs of meals were the most pressing issue.” (Trevino, 2012)  Free school meals will assist with the costs the families are currently paying, solidifying educational success, and making every family a part of an equal idea so none are left out due to inability to pay or resistance to public assistance.

To most people, properly supplying nutritional food to children is an important part of their growing minds. The effect nutrition has on a human body is of great importance.  

Unfortunately most parents and guardians cannot be with their children all hours of the day due to work, or school or other time consuming activities. It is a requirement by law for healthy children five years of age or kindergarten up to the age of eighteen or twelfth grade to attend a public school facility. During these eight to ten hour school days most parents and guardians rely on public schools to properly feed their children. School meals are important for this very reason.

The ability to provide school meals can become a difficult finance to parents when hardships arise, in some cases the ability to pay for every meal their child intakes becomes a not so easy task to accomplish. This type of lack of ability to supply proper nutrition can result in malnourishment. Malnourishment negatively affects development of important organs in the body, body growth itself, and causes mental issues and learning problems in the school environment. “[The] child’s brain is the busiest yet most under-nourished organ in the body. Children’s brains are a work in progress. The highest level of reasoning evolves between 10 and 14 years of age. If children do not receive proper nutrition and specific brain nutrients the development will not progress as it should.” (Sahley, 2006). Malnourishment affects the brains ability to process information correctly, making it hard to focus in school and maintain proper performance. Performance issues can result in failure to progress, and these students will need to be held back and can cause disruption in the classroom.

Nutrition is a prime indication of a healthy mind, body and appropriate performance ability. Babies, children and adults can all benefit from the benefits of proper nutrition. Whether nutritional meals are available or not should never be a question to any family. This is the reason school meals were introduced into public school facilities in the first place.  Most people would very much support the idea of free school meals to students attending a public school facility. In many cases teachers these children rely on end up having to deal with the hunger issue in the classroom. The inability to pay is more common than most people think, the children get to school hungry and if they are unable to pay, the meal is replaced with a free cheese sandwich. So the kids won’t starve per say, but they will not be as nutritionally satisfied as they would if the ability to pay did not arise. In recent news it was stated that in some places, if the child has a negative meal balance, the lunch is to be disposed of. Disposing the entire lunch right in front of the child and their peers seems a little farfetched and it shames them for not having money. This type of socially awkward embarrassment can be harmful to the student and can also be so easily avoided.