Schools that offer healthier hot meals and fewer processed foods from cafeterias and vending machines have found a significant decrease in discipline problems. One high school, in Appleton, Wisc., instituted a healthier school lunch program in 1997 and soon found incidents of drug use and weapons possession, which had been a problem, were dwindling and eventually eradicated. Students were no longer dropping out or being expelled, according to a report for the Feingold Association (feingold.org). Nutrition deficiencies, refined sugars, preservatives and artificial colors have been linked by pediatricians to altered thinking and behavior.
A California State University study of 803 low-income New York City students found that when students were provided hot, healthy meals at school, their grades rose from 11 percent below the national average to 5 percent above the same standard. A child's brain, much like an engine, requires clean, high-quality fuel to run at maximum capacity. Healthy, nutritious meals feed the brain as much as the stomach, and a hungry child can be a distracted one. So it makes sense that a healthy, hot meal will keep students from being hungry and better able to concentrate during class, which only benefits their learning capacity.
More than one-third of U.S. households have diets that do not meet nutritional guidelines, the U.S. Dietary Association (USDA) reports. But children and adolescents who are taught healthy nutrition at school, the CDC says, are more likely to continue healthy eating habits at home. Schools are able to expose children to foods they may not have experienced at home, which encourages dialogue on healthy eating between parents and kids. One new concept being explored, known as Edible Education, allows students to grow fruits and vegetables in a school garden and then help to prepare them in a school kitchen.
One in 3 children, aged 2 to 19, is obese, according to the USDA. The Journal of the American Medical Association released a report in 2004 stating that obesity (16 percent) was now second only to tobacco (18 percent) as a leading cause of death in the U.S. Childhood obesity is cited as a cause of significant absences for unhealthy students, a factor that can obviously impede educational progress. Under the new FDA guidelines, though, hot, healthy school lunches can assist in keeping waistlines down and attendance up.