Healthy Human Nutrition
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date
Healthy Human Nutrition
Introduction
The federal government has prioritized increasing food security and reducing hunger by increasing food access, nutrition education, and healthy diets for low-income citizens. Due to this, the government, in conjunction with other agencies like food nutrition service (FNS), US department of agriculture (USDA), has established programs to provide needy households with access to a nutritious diet and enhance the nation’s children eating habit. The major food assistance programs include the WIC special program for women and infants, national school lunch programs, t5he food stamp program, the school breakfast program(NSLP) wheel on a meal, feeding America, and many more programs (Edens et al., 2018). The paper will explore the national school lunch program and provide a personal one week experience on the program.
NSLP
The NSLP is a federal government assistance meal program in nonprofit private, residential child care institutions and public schools. It offers nutritional balanced free, low-cost lunches to children every day (Kim & Joo, 2020). The program began in 1946 under the “National School Lunch Act” signed by President Harry Truman. It helps to address child hunger and promote good nutrition. It recognizes that out of five children in the United States, one lives in a food-insecure household. The program also plays a vital role in the long-term health, healthy development, and educational outcomes for children from low-income families.
Eligibility
The NSLP acts as an entitlement program where a person is guaranteed a set of reimbursement for every qualifying snack or meal served in these schools. Children from low-income households are qualified to receive a free or reduce meal at the school. Children that come from Households where the income is lower than 130 percent poverty level are also qualified for the NSLP program (Kim & Joo, 20200. Children that come from households that receive TANF or SNAP are also eligible to free meals. Additionally, individuals from Households with income between 130-185% of the poverty line are also qualified for a reduced price for the food. The children are also eligible for nutritious free snacks and meals even when they are out of session. During the application, current month’s income is usually requested (Gordon et al., 2017). The students from families that participate in other meal public assistance programs are also eligible. Children who are enrolled in the head or even start programs are also qualified. If determined by the appropriate authorities, homeless, runaways, and migrants, students also join the school’s NSLP programs.
Program administration
The NSLP is mostly administered at the federal level by Nutrition service and USDA’s food. It is also administered through state agencies that operate it through agreements and with school authorities. The school gets cash reimbursement for the snacks and lunch served. The school also obtains USDA commodities food donations for the lunches requested (Gordon et al., 2017). The program provides one-third of daily calorie, iron, vitamin A, E protein, and calcium needed for the participants through the food offered at lunch. The food has been rated at 77.2 at the healthy eating index, which is higher for the average child diet in America.
Weekly program
A person attending the school meal program obtains a meal. The cashier assesses meals that meet the nutrition requirements of the NSLP; for the qualifying foods, a record of each student’s approval status either free, full or reduced prince is given. The approval is usually in such a manner that does not involve the specific student (Ralston & Coleman-Jensen, 2017) overtly. The meal totals are aggregated to the school, school district, and state where the school maintains the meal count records reported to FNS. FNS defines participants on the monthly average of the daily meal served. However, the NSLP has reported that the program participants have continued to decrease as they get older.
The meal diet and specification is usually group according to students grade where there is grade K-5 who are to receive an average of 550 to 650 dally calories range. The garden also receives less than 935mg on average daily sodium limits. The second grade is k-8, where students receive between 600 to 650 kcal daily calories on an average and less than 935 mg daily sodium limits on an average (Goldrick-Rab et al., 2016). Students from grade group 6 to8 receive 600 to 700 kcal of daily calories on average and less than 1035mg daily sodium limits on an average. The grade group 9 to 12 receives 750 to 850 daily calories and 1080 mg daily sodium limit on an average.
The students are expected to receive a less than 10 percent daily saturated fat limit on the total caries intake. The diet given to students includes grains credited by weight offered daily, and weekly minimums depend on their grades. Some fruits are credited by volume or cups; vegetables are also credited by volumes where the minimum quantities s must be met for all individuals (Kim & Joo, 2020). The program also expects students to receive milk, meat, and meta alternatives credited by weight and depend on their grades. The menu planning gives all the lunch table patterns, where the meal meets all the daily minimum requirements for the 5 components. The serving lines meet weekly and daily requirements, which involves even the vegetable subgroups. Some of the food provided has labels for the product formulation needed for document compliance.
Competitive foods are not allowed in the NSLP program. However, if the school opts to have competitive foods, there are minimum standards that the beverages and food must meet. Districts are allowed to have their own standards for the noon program foods provided to students (Kim & Joo, 2020). These foods must meet the nutrition standards given in the interim final report. However, there is a specific case where competitive food is allowed when the school conducts sponsored fundraisers.
Experience
The program’s food is excellent and nutritious, and one did not leave any food. After the meal, one only went hungry after a long period of 5 to 6 hours without another meal. The program only allowed for competitive foods and special cases since it wanted to avoid stigmatization of students who went on a free meal (Edens et al., 2018). During the process, one was significantly more satisfied compared to when not in the program. Although there were some different options, the option was only preferred by students from seniors classes. The meals were very nutritious and tasty as they followed the regular guidelines provided by the districts. The competitive foods in schools were largely criticized due to nutritional hazards and discriminatory nature. One feels that eliminating competitive foods can increase NSLP participation even by the senior students and reduce the observed stigma.
However, the program faces many problems since any kid who can afford competitively doesn’t participate in the food. When it comes to struggling families, the students are also shying away from the program. When the student participates in the meal, they mostly don’t eat the meal, causing increased food waste. The program provides students with a major source of nourishment. Students in the program consume a high amount of vital nutrition, like fiber, more vegetables, and milk. There are also a few sweetened beverages, snack foods, and sweets. However, the foods are high in fat and sodium, where the majority of the students on the program exceed the upper limit for sodium intake.
Conclusion
Schools face many challenges like the problem of improving the nutrition quality for the lunches. There is the problem of increasing the enrollment into the programs and making the most of the limited NSLP funds. For schools to improve on the program, they can check out for new vendors who will improve the food quality, and they can always get free and local food materials. They should also slash on waste and increase the lunchtime. Besides that, they should make competitive foods less competitive.
References
Edens, D., Lopez, A., Kessler, L., & Burns-Whitmore, B. (2018). Evaluation of the Factors Influencing Participation in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) for Latino Students During Middle School and High School Years. Californian Journal of Health Promotion, 16(2), 11-21.
Gordon, A. R., Briefel, R. R., Collins, A. M., Rowe, G. M., & Klerman, J. A. (2017). Delivering summer electronic benefit transfers for children through the supplemental nutrition assistance program or the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children: benefit use and impacts on food security and foods consumed. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 117(3), 367-375.
Goldrick-Rab, S., Broton, K., & Colo, E. B. (2016). Expanding the national school lunch program to higher education. Wisconsin Hope Lab.
Gunderson, G. W. (2017). National school lunch program (NSLP). US Department of Agriculture.
Kim, J., & Joo, M. (2020). The Effects of Direct Certification in the US National School Lunch Program on Program Participation. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 11(3), 000-000.
Ralston, K., & Coleman-Jensen, A. (2017). USDA’s National School Lunch Program Reduces Food Insecurity. Amber Waves.