Should Schools Ban Lunches From Home?

A controversial policy at a Chicago school sparks a heated debate.

A Chicago school’s policy banning children from bringing their lunches from home and requiring them to eat in the cafeteria recently drew nationwide attention, sparking a debate over how much relative control parents and schools should have over children’s dietary habits. Nutritionists agree that schools have a role to play in keeping kids healthy, but the nutritional track record of school lunches, thus far, has been less than stellar.

Kathryn Henderson
Director, School and Community Initiatives, Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, Yale University.

Almost one in five school-aged children in the United States is obese. Childhood obesity tracks into adulthood and is associated with increased risk for a long list of serious ailments, both in childhood and later in life. Independent of weight, American children eat poorly. Less than one-third of children consume adequate fruit and vegetables, and negligible numbers meet whole-grain recommendations. Intake of saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar is dangerously high. These poor dietary habits predispose children to chronic diseases.

When a health problem this serious affects an entire population, individually targeted solutions such as dietary counselling are both ineffective and cost-prohibitive. Most experts concur that recent changes to our social environment – most notably, an increase in the availability, accessibility, and marketing of tasty, calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods – are at the root of the problem. Thus, the solution must lie in a social-environmental overhaul.

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Yoni Freedhoff
Founder and Medical Director, Bariatric Medical Institute; Blogger.

Canada is one of the only developed countries in the world that does not have a national food policy for schools. Food is our bodies’ building blocks. If we don't provide our children with healthy building blocks, we are not going to build healthy children. If we want evidence-based food policies, it follows that Canadian schools have not only a role, but also an obligation to help provide the healthiest building blocks possible.

It is both amazing and disheartening that, right now, in Canada, we serve foods in our schools that kids are being taught in their classes that they should avoid. This is contradictory, and anathema to the country’s larger public-health goals. It is important to point out that a school food policy will not impact choice and free will. If kids want to eat unhealthy food, they'll be able to seek it out and get it. But it is another thing entirely to serve it to them in our publically funded school systems.

Read the full article here.