Colleen MansfieldMrs. Stolz English 7AA15 November 2009Childhood Obesity: Role of a School CafeteriaThe current federal standards restricting what types of food can be served in school cafeterias are too lax and flawed. The first shortcoming is that there is only a set minimum calorie value for a meal, no maximum (Quaid). This is a problem because while students must intake at least some calories, it is very possible for a student to overload on the calorie count in his food. If a student eats more calories in one meal than he can burn off in a day, it is extremely easy for fat to build up. The federal standards also do not meet the government’s own guidelines as seen in the updated food pyramid (Quaid). Proper serving sizes and number of servings are not enforced. Currently, nothing stands to stop a child from eating all grains. There is a large funding gap in the free lunch program. Each free lunch costs a school approximately $2.92 to make, but only $2.68 is paid for by government (Quaid). This makes it difficult for schools to maintain their lunch programs and provide ample nutritious food for students. Federal standards are not specific enough concerning what items find their end on a student’s lunch tray. In order to rectify the problems in federal standards, a call for reform has sounded. Part ofthe proposal would set caloric lows and highs for both breakfast and lunch. Breakfast would haveto contain 500-600 calories and lunch would have 650-850 calories (Quaid). This would prevent children from eating a whole day’s worth of calories in one sitting. The reform would also setnutritional standards for all food at all schools (Millman). Uniform servings of fruits, vegetables, and grains would be available at every school with a free lunch program. Each week, there wouldbe 2.5 – 5 servings of fruit available at lunch and at least 5 servings for breakfast (Quaid). At lunch, 1.25 – 2.5 servings of dark green or bright orange vegetables would be made available to students (Quaid). Every day, 7-10 servings of grain would be served at breakfast and 9-13 at lunch (Quaid). Half of more of the servings would have to be whole grains (Quaid). With those standards implemented, even if a child were to max out his calorie count, a balanced meal would still be provided. The last part of the reform would serve to rework free lunch program. Most important is to get rid of funding gap (Millman). To do this, it is suggested that meal prices are raised. The price of breakfast would increase by 20% and lunch would be raised by 4% (Quaid). The prices would still be manageable and would enable cafeterias to spend more with a smaller deficit. A reform of the federal standards for food served in school cafeterias is crucial to decrease the cafeteria’s role in childhood obesity.Preventing childhood obesity is very important. It is a serious problem that leads to many other issues in physical and mental health. Physically, an obese child can develop serious dieasessuch as Type II diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, high cholesterol (“Kids”). They can also suffer abdominal problems, iron deficiency, hypertension, and strokes (“Kids”). Scientists expectto see a 2 to 5 year drop in life expectancy for today’s children (Lesley). Obviously, none of these health issues are typically seen in small children nor are they problems doctors should be observing in young age groups. Mental health problems arise from taunting by peers, trouble fitting in, feeling lonely (“Kids”). Many children develop food insecurities, furthering their overeating problems and obesity. Teachers and parents find that overweight and obese childrenlack an attention span and display difficulty learning (Greene). Cafeteria food’s role in causing such mental and physical problems should be eliminated through reforming federal