Should the federal government require healthy school lunches?

During the last presidential administration, former First Lady Michelle Obama made her primary focus fighting childhood obesity thorough the implementation of healthier lunch options for public school kids. Mrs. Obama emphasized the value of proper nutrition and exercise, but her programs were not without her detractors – who argued that such programs were not appealing to students or cost-efficient for school administrators. President Trump has stated his intention to roll back these school lunch regulations for similar reasons. Should the government be involved in regulating school lunches? If not, who should decide what children in schools eat?

investigate

When It Comes To School Lunch Choices, Teenagers Help Decide What's On Their Tray

Read

A Matter of Taste: Why Congress May Back Off New School Lunch Standards

Listen

Federal government relaxes nutrition standards for school lunches

Listen

Additional resources to think about

Making School Lunches Healthier Doesn't Mean Kids Will Eat Them
A new study found that less than half of students took a vegetable from the lunch line and ate some of it.

Why the healthy school lunch program is in trouble. Before/after photos of what students ate.
In the war to get America's children to eat healthier, things are not going well.

Kids Try 100 Years of School Lunches
Watch kids eat through a history of school lunch from Epicurious.

Why Do We Drink Milk in School?
Dr. Bainbridge takes us through the history of serving milk in school cafeterias and the National School Lunch program in this episode of The Origin of Everything.

Tiny Desk Kitchen: The 26 Ingredient School Lunch Burger
In this episode of Tiny Desk Kitchen, NPR explores why so many hard-to-pronounce ingredients ended up in a school burger.

contemplate

Who created this message?

What kind of “text” is it?
How similar or different is it to others of the same genre?
What are the various elements (building blocks) that make up the whole?

What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

What do you notice (about the way the message is constructed)?
What’s the emotional appeal?
What makes it seem “real?”
What's the emotional appeal? Persuasive devices used?

How might different people understand this message differently from me?

How many other interpretations could there be?
How could we hear about them?
How can you explain the different responses?

What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?

What type of person is the reader/watcher/listener invited to identify with?
What ideas or perspectives are left out?
How would you find what’s missing?
What judgments or statements are made about how we treat other people?

Why is this message being sent?

What's being sold in this message? What's being told?
Who is served by or benefits from the message
– the public?
– private interests?
– individuals?
– institutions?

5 Key Questions of Media Literacy used with permission from the Center for Media Literacy.
Copyright 2002-2021, Center for Media Literacy, www.medialit.com

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