School lunch programs should be serving meals that kids will eat, yet that still meet the federal guidelines. Cafeterias are challenged to please children with tasteful food with their tight budget, while also keeping it healthy, which doesn’t always happen.

In addition to low budgets, the vending machines are yet another major influence on the poor eating habits of today’s youth. The problem now is that kids will throw away their fruit and vegetables and purchase chips or other junk food from the school’s vending machines.

The cafeteria requires everyone to take a fruit or they won’t let you through the line. Of course, everyone should be required to take a fruit because it’s healthy. However, students just end up putting the fruit on a table near the trash can for other kids to take for free. This sends the message that it’s ok not to eat the fruit. What’s the point of making us take it just to throw it away?

Every day, more and more people are grabbing snacks throughout the day from the vending machines. This became such a huge problem within the school that they shut down all the vending machines during lunchtime, yet no one is stopping kids from making purchases during breaks.

The cafeteria doesn’t always provide us with the healthiest options. For instance, there’s a day where the main lunch is literally chips and cheese for nachos. Sometimes the choice of fruit is a preservative-filled strawberry fruit cup.

The vending machines and the poor choices available in the student lunches could start to have an impact on the rising obesity rates if these issues aren’t addressed.

With just a few simple steps as a community we could make a difference in the offerings for daily lunches and in the eating habits of today’s youth.

If the dietary planners were able to purchase local farm fresh fruit to make fruit cups, kids would be more likely to eat it instead of trashing it.

We could also put healthier options in the vending machines such as granola bars, dried fruit and nuts.

We need kids to start eating the lunch provided for them, and we need the provided lunch to look appealing and healthy so that they will want to eat it.

Marissa Rosa

Turners Falls