Analysis: “Why Students Hate School Lunches.”

A 1,284-word article in the New York Times (9/27, Murphy, Subscription Publication) analyzes why American students dislike school lunches as evidenced by the “overflowing” trash cans after lunch and the “diminishing” receipts for school lunch programs. The Times points out that the 2012 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act guidelines prevent schools from offering “a classic baguette, semolina pasta or jasmine rice,” things that are “staples of diets in other cultures with far lower rates of childhood and adult obesity than in the United States.” The Times notes that the strict guidelines of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act may also “perpetuate Americans’ uneasy, binge-prone relationship with food.” The piece also highlights what certain school districts are doing to combat the decline in student interest for school lunches.