Hello and congrats on the win. I have written you a letter to express my concerns about school lunches. Back in February 2010, Michelle Obama introduced her “Let’s Move!” campaign which soon later made schools comply to the healthier meals. But there’s a new problem now, the portions of the meals. Not every student takes part in a sport or after school activity but those who do, feel their stomachs growling towards the end of the day and know that it’ll be a couple more hours before they can get home and eat.

Before we move any further, my personal connection to this issue is that I play sports and most of the times during lunch, I finish my food right away and am left with still yet, an empty stomach. I still have classes to attend to before my day is over and, I don’t have time to go home and get a snack because I have practice. With all the running I do and loss of energy, I get really famished and even light headed sometimes. Since I’m gone for so long from home, most of the time when I get there, there isn’t any nutritious food left.

You might be thinking about the amount it’ll cost to get more food onto our trays. But according to the “Arguments Against Reform” article (Arguments Against Reform), most schools now pay for the…

trucks to bring in soy, corn, etc.

equipment in the factory

workers to use the equipment

packaging for the product

huge freezers to store it

salaries and bonuses for the sales staff

salaries and bonuses for the executives

salaries for the secretaries and other support staff

benefits for the board of directors

dividends for stockholders

salaries for a staff to take orders

refrigerated/freezer trucks

workers to load up trucks

transporting product many miles

school freezers to store products

In all, the schools pay more for the labor that is done than the food itself. So that still leaves me wondering why the money is used as an excuse/argument.

If it’s not the money, than it’s the time it takes. It took a really powerful person like Michelle to finally get things moving or towards the process of action. Not many students talk about the portion size of the meals because I think they think it’s normal. They might think that it’s normal to start feeling hungry towards the end of school because it’s close to dinnertime or they have accessibility to snacks or whatever it may be. I don’t think it’s normal for us to be feeling empty and still hungry even after we ate lunch at school, that shouldn’t be right. I think at least every student athlete or after school student have felt hungry but just haven’t considered it being a big deal so if they all spoke up, the issue would be more known and talked about.

At lunch, healthy choices are presented to us everyday, but not all of us take it. That could also be a possibility that most of us are still hungry. We need fruits and vegetables for energy. We don’t take them mainly because they’re not “good” like cookies and slices of cake are. Which also ties in with the way the food looks. Ever since the schools have been trying out the healthy side of food, the food has looked gushier, brown and oozey than ever before. Although the taste might be fresher and probably even better, some students take one look and sniff and run out of the line and rather buy something from vending machines like a small bag of chips for a dollar than to eat the school lunch.

My solution is that not everyone has to have more food, if we could just create an extra line in lunch where they serve seconds or in the middle of lunch they announce seconds, then the people who would want more could go and get some. Or we could also serve snacks, real snacks. Like fruits, veggies and a drink in a bag or box and people who wanted it for after school or sports could buy one and save it.

All in all, the issue is not known by many but it’s still an issue by the least. We need to take action now and get more people aware and get their opinions. It really is a big issue, our stomachs shouldn’t go on growling and grumbling. It affects our learning, effort and attitude throughout the day.

Sincerely, Anahi