5 Facts About Our School Lunches By, Leslie Ryan Tyrell Pinching Claudia Cotton Jessica Royston Erin Cole

Fact 1 The Fact: One child in every four is overweight or obese, and one in three will develop diabetes in his or her lifetime. Importance: That rate is only increasing among children. The foods they feed to children at lunch effect their health and life span.

Fact 2 The Fact: Obesity and diabetes are so destructive that today’s kids are the first in over two centuries to have shorter life expectancies than their parents. Importance: This is not a good fact at all. It is common sense why it is important. Obviously we need to do something different with our food if our life spans are deteriorating.

Fact 3 The Fact: Thousands of school cafeterias do not even undergo health inspections. Importance: That is a terrifying fact! The food they feed us can be expired or just not good quality at all. The kitchen they make the food in could be dirty itself too and could spread more harmful diseases and pathogens.

Fact 4 The Fact: The National School Lunch Program feeds more than 31 million children every school day. 18 million of those children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Importance: That is a lot of food to have to purchase and hand out to kids at school. So that means the food will not be that good.

Fact 5 The Fact: What kids eat at school sets the tone for what they eat at home. Importance: About one third of a child’s eating habits are influenced by what they eat at school. If they are not eating healthy at school, they are likely not to eat healthy outside of school. Which can lead to serious health deffects.

ResourcesResources nutrition-school-lunches/ nutrition-school-lunches/ mpaigns/time_for_lunch- factsheet%282%29.pdfhttp:// mpaigns/time_for_lunch- factsheet%282%29.pdf in-fort-lauderdale/food-revolution-10- shocking-facts-about-your-schools- cafeteria-food-part-1http:// in-fort-lauderdale/food-revolution-10- shocking-facts-about-your-schools- cafeteria-food-part-1