The school cafeteria can be a problematic place in itself, especially with the liberty kids have to roam and talk with their peers, but it just so happens that this freedom does not count for the public school lunches. For decades, teachers and district workers have been overlooking a serious problem that is gradually getting worse right under their noses. This problem has to do with the portion size, and there is not much being done to resolve it. Though schools need to meet a certain requirement for different food groups, lots of kids end up throwing their extra food in trash bins when the school could easily put it to better use. This is clearly proven when we are forced to buy many extra things for our lunch, when the kindergarteners have the same lunch size as the fifth graders, and the extra food in our lunch ends up in our trash cans. This issue is changing what the next generation of people will decide to eat on a daily basis, simply by buying a cookie instead of an apple in their school cafeteria.

It is very important to eat enough food for every meal in order to keep a healthy lifestyle, but the cafeterias may be sending us to class with a little too much in our stomachs. Of course, the school systems have to include all five of the main food groups: fruits, vegetables, grain, milk, and meat or meat alternative. However, the portion size for all of these should be much smaller. A recent study from the Dairy Council of California showed the increase of food portion in calories, and the results were shocking. A bagel, which rounded up to about 140 calories in the 1980’s, equals about 350 calories now! They are also stating the same about everyday objects, saying “The size of dinner plates, muffin tins and pizza pans have grown. Cars have larger cup holders to accommodate the drink sizes stores sell. As everything gets bigger, bigger starts to seem like the norm, distorting how we think about a serving size or the ‘right’ amount.” With this in mind, this should open up people’s eyes on how big our eating utensils are getting, which is quickly affecting our public school cafeterias. An article from the Daily Mail states an important point of how our brain can mislead us when we are eating things. “'The habit of using a visual clue for eating, rather than being conscious of satiety – how full you feel – is a tough one to break,'” says Emma Brown, a nutritionist. This basically shows how we can think we need more lunch depending on the size of the plates or bowls given to us. That said, lots of the extra things we need to buy with our lunches, such as other snacks to add to our already big serving size, are completely unnecessary and can be a big waste of lunch money.

In addition, the elementary schools are not making the portion size matter any better. In schools from K-5, every grade gets the same lunch portion. To put that in perspective, five and six year olds are eating the same amount of food as ten and eleven year olds. Yes, kids are growing rapidly, but a five year old should not have the same amount of food as someone who is at the peak of their growth. According to the Build Healthy Kids organization, they show the right consumption size for kids, stating, “Children age 1-6 year should limit juice consumption to 1⁄2 cup per day. For children age 7-18 this can increase to 1 cup per day but no more than 12 oz.” Knowing this, it is obvious that the amount of juice they should have completely differs depending on age, and with a school that includes both of those age groups, there should be a difference. It all varies on the student’s age and what grade they are in, because buying and eating this everyday can lead to an unhealthy intake of food. “Parents need to be aware that a serving size on a Nutrition Facts label may not be the right portion for their child,” says healthychildren, a website managed by real pediatricians. “For example, 15 crackers may be the serving size listed on a label; however, the number of crackers you serve your child will vary based on different calorie needs.” This makes a big point, especially noting that the amount of calories per day a five year old needs is about 1,300 when an eleven year old needs about 3,200. This difference proves how different children’s bodies are, and how having the same lunch portion for all of them just makes no sense.

An equally important factor to take notice of is the school trash cans. What is usually seen in almost every one’s cafeterias is a pile of partially or completely uneaten food. Though most people, especially kids, are against wasting food, they don’t think twice about throwing away a perfectly good meal. According to the World Food Day website, Americans waste as much as 30-40% of the food supply, “equaling more than 20 pounds of food per person per month.” This is a vast amount, and this might even be more when children are involved. Kids can be picky eaters, so when they buy lunch and see something they don’t like, they will throw it away. This also goes for the fact that their appetites are usually not huge, so the extra food that is offered when we buy lunch will most likely end up in a trash bin, when someone who is truly hungry and in need of food could easily eat it. CBS conducted a study and proved to parents what was going on in the school lunchroom, saying, “In fact, a study conducted soon after the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act went into effect found what many parents suspected: a lot of school children were taking the required fruits and vegetables and throwing them directly into the trash.” These picky eaters are choosing the extra snacks in a school lunch over the fruits and veggies, both of which are required in a school lunch.

Ultimately, the expeditious increase in portion size is playing a negative effect on our school lunch systems, allowing teachers and district workers to get away with a problem that is shaping the way kids think of as a “healthy snack”. By allowing kids to leave with full stomachs, throw away uneaten food, and simply keeping the same portion size for a mixed number of grades, young students are going to get the wrong impression of how much is actually the right amount. Nowadays, despite lots of the big things going on around the world, people might need to start to take the time and look at the size of the food they're buying or the size of the pan they use for baking, because it just might play a negative role on our public schools.

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