As a full-time high school student and cooking fanatic I believe that the food being served in high school cafeterias is not providing students with the nutrients they need to academically perform. Many cafeterias do require students to take a fruit and dairy item as to benefit their health but in the grand scheme of things that is the bare minimum. I have seen firsthand that when many of these fruits are rotten my fellow students opt out of having any fruit with their lunch. It is a known fact that students who are failing to reach nutritional standards are far more likely to repeat a grade during their time in high school.
It is true that oftentimes it is the students who chose to not eat the food given to them by the school and that makes this situation hard for the school administration to control. That’s why I believe that if schools provided simultaneously healthier and tastier meals than the overall performance of students in said school would rise greatly.
Unfortunately issues like this one often boil down to simply the budget or lack thereof for the schools in question which is truly unfair for students living in low income areas of the world. Overall I just hope that as time goes on schools make more of an effort to give students better nutrition and through that create better learning environments for said students.
Brendan Carey
Deerfield