Written by Jullien Bueno, Anthony Arana, and Yonesi Tapia
School lunches in Texas lack nutrition, protein, and sufficient fruits or vegetables that are essential for a child’s body. Many articles, websites, and sources such as the United Way Dallas website, speak up about the importance of keeping school lunches nutritional, healthy, and of good quality. The sheer number of people and organizations that are worried about Texas school lunches is concerning, especially because most of these people and organizations are right. According to an organization called “Feeding America”, as of May 2024, Texas is the most food-insecure state in the nation, and between 2020, and 2022, an average of 15.5% of Texas households reported lack of consistent, healthy, and affordable food.
The USDA has made several controversial changes leading to worse school lunches. Some examples of this are them ending the LFPA program which is a vital associate of many food banks, and ending the “Local Food for Schools” program which funded not only Texas school lunches, but many states in the nation. This ultimately leads to more expensive but more nutritious and healthy foods, like quality meats, vegetables, fruits and more being left out of the menu. This means more processed, pre-packaged, and fried foods are being added in, which can have a negative impact on a child’s body.
Some solutions concerning these problems could be fighting to get more funding from the USDA, and looking towards more cheap and nutritious foods who aren’t popular. This includes more diverse foods, such as common indian foods, and even greek dishes. Indian foods are commonly considered healthy and nutritious due to their nutrient rich spices, their healthy cooking methods, and they are rich in vegetables. Greek foods are also considered healthy because they align with the Mediterranean Diet Foundation, they have healthy fats and spices, and it’s full of protein rich yogurt in certain dishes.
Bowie needs more diversity and more cultural choices in their daily lunches. This could help with many students from many different backgrounds who could feel unwelcomed, or left out from their schools. This could maybe even help with the problem that many kids experience bullying and being made fun of just because they are a different color or heritage. This would not only point more attention towards the racism problems we still have in schools today, but it’d be beneficial in the nutritional value, protein, vitamins, and many important parts of a healthy meal.
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