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It's a well documented fact that the Howard County Board of Education recently adopted a new plan and set of nutritional criteria for this school-year and the school-years ahead of us. I think it's pretty obvious why they adopted this plan, as well. Rising obesity rates among the younger population of the United States, increasingly concerned parents, and even more disgusted children. It's quite easy to see the system in action – just take a look at the snack bar here in the cafeteria. You'll notice there's not even half of the selection of what there was last year – the school board is cutting back on supplying schools with fatty snacks(/*often kids buy snacks for lunch instead of lunch with snacks or just lunch*/).
Along with the lack of snacks in the snack line, have you noticed something else? Take a look at what you're paying for school meals – 2.50$ for a measly portion of fries and an often under or overcooked sandwich. You pay .75c more for twice as much fries – that's it, though. Just the fries. Is 3.25 worth such a meal? No. Personally, I think our money is better spent on better food. So ask yourselves this, would you rather be eating
This(current school lunch):
Or this(chick-fil-a meal):
You may notice the second slide showed(shows) images of Chick-Fil-A meals – yes, we could be eating that for lunch instead of our current lunch foods. Take for example schools in California and Texas, which have school cafeterias similar to what you'd find in the food court at the mall – several vendors(or even just one) around the cafeteria. It's about as simple as what we have now, except its cheaper, more efficient and produces a better result. It's much cheaper because, for example, Chick-Fil-A, can use our existing kitchen to cook, and more efficient because we won't be waiting in line nearly as long. I think we'd all be much more satisfied with the quality of the meal.
What can the Howard County School System, and in turn, you, do so we're not forced to eat such low-quality foods? A number of things. Aside from immediately changing the actual food served, students could take strides towards bringing their own lunch – there's even microwaves now for such a thing. A more progressive aim would be to petition the school board to change food providers from the current company to another offering both cheaper(/*or the same price/*) food plans, but are much healthier(not to mention taste noticeably better). Further down along this path, and perhaps the most extreme of solutions, would be to change the manner in which we sell the food entirely – such as adopt a third party sponsor for foods, like Chick-Fil-A.(/*possibly healthiest “fast food” company/*).