High School Exclusive Options
Unlike elementary schools, most high schools have alternative options for their students. In my own high school, we were provided with a café run by students that sold other foods like ramen and coffee, but had to be bought with cash and were not part of the school’s lunch program. Other alternative options that are available to some high schools are open lunches which are also separate from the school’s lunch programs. These separate lunch programs both have pros and cons, and a rising debate to whether schools should keep these programs is very controversial. The questions that may arise are whether these outside lunch programs aid in creating a healthy diet for their students or do these food shops provide students with junk food that contribute to the increasing rate of obesity in youth.
Student Run Restaurants
Food shops in high schools is a common privellage to high school students, and provide students with easy access to snacks and even coffee. But are these shops contributing to the increasing obesity rates or do these cafes provide students access to healthy meals. Well, it all depends on what kind of foods the cafe provides to its student body. For example, students in the San Dieguito Academy opened up a student run cafe shop ,called the Mosaic, within the school to provide their students with more meal options. The picture to the left shows students from San Dieguito Academy, working at their cafe, the Mosaic. The menu consisted of whole grain bagels, healthy fruit smoothies, and delicious panini sandwhiches. All these foods were created by the students themselves, which taught them both the importance of nutrition, as well as a good work ethic. The cafe is self-sustaining and does not take out from the school's budget at all. These cafes are a great alternative to having the students leave the camps for their open lunches. The video below depicts the student run cafe that provides studens with gourmet style food, that provides all the necessary nutrients for a healthy meal. In addition to these school cafes, high schools can provide their students with an a la carte menu, unlike student run cafes, the a la carte menu is part of the school lunch program, but does not count towards a student's meal plan. The a la carte menu provides a variety of healthy options, from salads to fat free yogurt. While a la carte menus do provide healthy options, there are also foods that are high in saturated fats and sugar. Some high schools provide their students with high in fat cookies, junk food like Lay's Chips, or even candy (especially my favorite chocolate bar Kit-Kats)! As you can see, these extra food options for students can both be advantageous and disadvantageous. It all depends on the type of food that these programs provide to the students. The video below shows another example of a student run restaurant program which provides students with a variety of food.
Open Lunches and Closed Lunches
The concept of open lunch is when students are allowed to leave campus to eat lunch in outside stores like Taco Bell or McDonalds. This optional lunch program provides students with more freedom, but at what cost? Do the benefits of an open lunch outweigh the costs of such a risky school lunch program? In 2006, a study done by the School Health Policies and Programs revealed that about 73.1% of high schools in the United States had a closed lunch policy. First, Let's take a look at the advantages to the open school lunch program. Some school cafeteria's may be small, and will no be able to accommodate the large population of students in the school, forcing the school to create numerous lunch periods for the students, making it difficult for the school to coordinate these lunch periods. In addition, these open school lunch programs provide the students with a higher sense of freedom and are able to go home (if it is close enough) and take a break from all the strenuous school work during the day. The disadvantages to an open school lunch are numerous. These disadvantages to an open lunch include increased tardiness in class due to students not coming back from their lunch period, criminal activities off campus, and unhealthy choices in school lunch. The picture above shows high school students spending their lunch time at a local Taco Bell. Another obvious safety issue is the higher risk for accidents for students returning to school. According to Marlo R. Miura, a staff attorney for the Public Health Advocacy Institute, states that time is one of the major reasons to these higher rates of car accidents. Some high schools with open lunch policies provide their students with so little, it forces these students to rush back to school in order avoid being tardy. Miura suggests that high schools give their students an extra fifteen minutes to compensate for the parking and driving times the students have to face. According to a study done by Professor Dianne Neumark-Sztainer from the University of Minnesota showed that students with access to open lunches were significantly more likely to go to unhealthy fast food restaurants. Professor Neumark-Sztainer concluded that these open lunches correlated to poor nutritional choices for high school students, and recommended schools to relook at their food policies and create reformations to either work together with the local municipal government to manage their open lunch school programs more efficiently or simply revoke open lunch programs and turn to a closed lunch program. Furthermore, staff attorney Miura suggests that open school lunches should only be provided after students pass a set of academic and behavioral requirements. Both Dr. Neumark-Sztainer and Miura seem to agree that open school lunches should be seen as a privilege for students on the right track. In current news, debates have sparked over this controversial topic in the North Shore High School in New York. The rise in criminal activities, including illegal drug and alcohol consumption, sparked a parent run campaign for the school to eliminate the fifteen year tradition of open lunch policy into a closed lunch policy. The principal of North Shore High School, Elaine Boyer, states that 95% of the student body utilizes their open lunch period responsibly, and should not be punished for the actions of the other 5% who are participating in the criminal activities. Math teacher Bob Gerver goes on to state that open lunch should be a privileged earned by the students, depending on their maturity index. To this day, the debate on open lunch vs. closed lunch policy still continues. Overall, whether the open lunch policies are beneficial to the students all depends on how the high schools manage them and the personal choices of the students themselves. The video below shows students from Beaver Dam High School in Wisconsin expressing their knowledge on the debate on open vs closed lunches.