In my previous article, I outlined what I thought was wrong with school lunches. Then I invited you to respond. I sent out dozens of questionnaires to vegans, vegetarians, carnivores, students from other countries, and friends.

The good news:
Some kids are starting to realize what’s good for them and what’s not so good for them. Some are even cleaning up their diet themselves by going vegetarian, vegan, or simply cutting out fatty fried fast foods.

The bad news:
Most kids don’t seem to care about the ill effects of what they eat, though they seem to be aware of them. Even if they do care, their school, society, and families make it very difficult for them to eat well. School cafeterias still are major purveyors of laughably unhealthy foods. Hardly any alternatives exist.

Your responses were encouraging and saddening at the same time. Most of you felt that school lunches were a factor in the mounting obesity epidemic. When asked whether school lunches were making kids fat, Mandy replied “Not exclusively, but they certainly do not help the American obesity epidemic.” Taylor Ann was a little more adamant in her denouncement of school lunches. “I get sick whenever I look at what my non-vegan friends are eating at lunch. They have NO healthy food to choose from in my school district…even the lettuce on the hamburgers is iceberg and stale, so even that has no nutritional value.” Aaron blamed the problem on school food coupled with a lack of regular physical activity. He said, “I think unhealthy school lunches combined with a lack of exercise is the cause of the increase in childhood obesity.”

Every single person interviewed expressed an interest in seeing healthy, great tasting vegan options added to their school cafeteria’s menu. This preference was unaffected by the subjects' dietary pattern. Meat eaters and vegans alike wished for healthier options. Haamid wistfully lamented the absence of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in his Washington D.C. school cafeteria while Luis of Puerto Rico couldn’t understand why his school didn’t offer low-fat veggie burgers. Instead, all kids reported being served cheese fries, fried chicken, nachos, pizza, and hotdogs. More disturbing was the reported trend in which fast food companies are installing in-school franchises to sell food at lunchtime. This is simply unforgivable.

Thankfully, a few teens are bucking the system. Aaron reports that he eschews school lunch in favor of bringing from home “salad, raw vegetables, nuts, fresh fruit, and a bread of some type.” Sadly, Aaron is the minority. Because her school does not serve anything nutritionally adequate and she is too busy to pack a lunch, Mandy says “I don’t ever eat lunch at school. I usually wait until I get home to eat a meal for lunch.”

Even though pizza, tacos, and French fries were mentioned as perennial cafeteria favorites, most kids said that they hate the food they are being served. In reference to school lunches, words like “greasy”, “too salty”, “slimy”, “stale”, “starchy”, and “just plain gross” were stated frequently. Apparently, to compensate for poor food quality and bad preparation, generous amounts of butter, salt, and grease are applied to cafeteria offerings to lure children to buy them.

Something is amiss here. There is a vast disparity between what kids want and what they are receiving. They are gobbling up the fat laden school lunch items because they are the only options that come close to tasting decent. There is a small but vocal minority segment of the school population that is craving healthy lunch entrees but cannot access them in a cafeteria where Pepsi Co. is king. It certainly appears as if the federal government doesn’t care that deeply about the health of our generation. They preach incessantly of the benefits of a diet low in fat and high in fruits, vegetables, and unrefined grains yet they continue to allow public schools to dispense artery clogging nutritionally empty foods to our nation’s children. To heighten the absurdity, the US government supplies many schools with the basic ingredients for their nutritional nightmare of a menu.

I believe that we are already reaping the effects of this lack of care. Heart Disease is the number one killer of Americans. Our generation, as a whole, is the least active and most overweight that our country has ever seen. Girls are reaching puberty at the ages of 8 and 9 now while before 1900 the average age of the onset of menarche was 16 and 17. I blame this on a fat centric diet full of hormones from processed dairy and meats. Cancer rates have risen astronomically along with obesity. News flash: Cancer cells thrive in the body when there is a high level of saturated fat present. Schools are hammering the nails into million of coffins with their pathetic lunches.

Some concerned individuals are campaigning for healthier school lunches. There have been some small successes but nothing on a national scale. More work is still needed. In my final article I will outline the efforts of activists, parents, and doctors that are battling the US government in hopes of seeing the cheesy fries on their kid’s plate replaced by black-eyed peas and steamed carrots.

--Kristin is a frequent contributor to vegetarianteen.com and the winner of our first essay contest with the slogan "My lunch never had a central nervous system." Read what Kristin ate today, and be sure not to miss her article entitled Dealing With Being Different.