The Problem
The problem I am seeking to fix is poor child nutrition in American public schools. Although the fix seems obvious, serving healthier food in schools, unfortunately, the solution is challenging. The root of the problem is twofold. First, due to the school's overcrowding and lack of funding, most of our 2500+ students eat reheated or frozen, which significantly lacks essential vitamins and minerals and is high in trans and saturated fat. Unfortunately, this problem impacts my school cafeteria and the 30+ million children per day The National School Lunch Program serves. Even worse, these students receive 1/3 of the nutrition from unhealthy lunches and breakfasts. Food quality is only the tip of the iceberg; a lack of proper nutrition is detrimental to everything. First, unhealthy food leads to decreased cognitive ability, reduced attention, and memory span, thus limiting students' potential to learn. Second, the rampant obesity problem is plaguing America. The obesity rate of children and teens has tripled since the 1970s, and now nearly 1/5th of school-aged children have obesity. Children with obesity have an elevated risk for other health complications such as stroke, diabetes, asthma, and high blood pressure. Third, poor nutrition leads to developmental and mental health problems—higher anxiety, stress, and depression. Lastly, due to the high trans fatty acids in school food, many students have increased anger, impatience, and irritability, which disrupts learning for other students. Secondly, the problem lies in the students themselves. Although schools can serve healthier food, if the students do not eat the food, then the solution does not work. Students have yet to be taught proper nutritional habits from a young age. As a result, many think what they eat is healthy, when in fact, 56% of children in America have poor diets. Habits created at a young age often stick into adulthood, leading to a lifelong cycle of poor nutrition and adverse health problems. Fortunately, this problem has a silver lining. Nutrition education and healthy food served at school will tackle both aspects of the equation. By teaching kids, from a young age, about healthy eating and proper diets, not only will these students be more likely to lead diets into adulthood, dramatically reducing obesity and heart problems in America, but they will also have increased mood and cognitive ability in school. In addition, by teaching students about the severe adverse effect associated with unhealthy eating, they are more likely to adopt healthy eating practices in and out of school, which dramatically hamper the rising obesity problem in our nation.
