School Lunches and Mental Health

School Lunches and Students’ Mental Health

This week’s school lunch menu:

Monday     Refried Puke

Tuesday Fajita Cat Food

Wednesday   Anti-Atkins

Thursday   Slopasta

Friday     Monster Mash

Yumeeeeeee! Just some of the tasty names students across the U.S. fondly call the food served to them for lunch in their school cafeterias.  And don’t forget “Squishy Squash,” “Pork Chop Slop,” “No-Bean Burritos,” “Broccoli Custard,” “Apple Mush,” and “Friday Surprise.”

This would be funny if it were not the truth.  Sadly, these lunch monikers are altogether too real.  And their effects on the physical and mental health of our students is downright devastating.  This is, sadly, no laughing matter.

 Stats Tell the Truth

Roughly 30-plus million students participate each day in the National School Lunch Program, reported the U.S. Office of Education in 2013, nearly half of the total number of students who attend our public schools each and every day.

According to the School Nutrition Association, more than 2 million students from low-income families receive free lunches, as well as another 5-plus million from the same group who receive their lunches at a reduced-price, while more than 7 million students pay the full price for their lunches. 

Approximately 19.2 million students receive their lunches at free or reduced prices due to their socio-economic status, which could well be the most nutritious meal of their day. Until 2010, when Congress passed the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, school lunches had reached a point where they were not providing the nutrition growing kids most need.*

That means that nearly half of our school-lunch-eating students were not getting the nutritional value they needed from their meals, and sadly that also means that our most needy population of kids were not likely eating at all like they should.

Even more sadly, even after the passage of the new legislation to elevate the nutritional level of school lunches, seven years later, not all schools have complied with new food laws of the land, which is some  30% or more of our country’s public schools.

So, what does this all mean?  Why is it so important?

Implications of Bad Eats

Besides negatively affecting student performance in schools, on a daily basis, and during standardized test time, physical, mental and behavioral problems can be traced back to unhealthy nutrition and poor eating habits.

Deficiencies in zinc, B-vitamin, Omega-fatty acids and protein have been shown to affect the cognitive development of children.  It has also been established that there is a strong link between proper nutrition and student behavior, including psychosocial well-being and aggressive actions. 

Further, students with poor nutrition tend to miss school more often, thereby falling behind or creating gaps in their learning.  Falling behind can increase levels of frustration and anxiety, which if not remedied properly, could lead to increased instances of depression.

School lunches are more important that we realize.  Their quality, or lack thereof, can put almost half of the overall student population at risk mentally, physically and emotionally.  While the names students give their most gross lunches may seem like funny ha ha, the poor nutritional quality of school food and its effect on our students’ growth, especially their mental and emotional health, is not funny at all.

And lastly, consider the great unmentioned statistic, one that could be even more tell tale with regard to our sons and daughters not growing and developing as they should…students who choose to not eat breakfast or lunch at all, or at least at school.  Would you eat “refried puke” on Monday, even if that was not what it was officially called?  How about “Friday Surprise”? Know what I mean?

*Education, “Healthy Body, Healthy Mind,” 2016.