By: Melissa Nunes
Most restaurants, fast food places, packaged food, and even online recipes provide easily accessible nutrition information, so why should it be any different at our school? In case you aren’t sure what I’m talking about, nutrition information is found the little chart on the back of almost all store bought food lists the ingredients, carbohydrates, and calories that are in every serving. All restaurants and fast food chains in California are required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide this nutrition information on their drive through menus or on an additional hand out.
Nutrition information is provided mainly for people with allergies and other illnesses, such as diabetes, that may require them to know the calorie or carb intake of their food. It is pretty easy to access this information normally if you look it up online or ask a worker; however, at our school it is not so simple. Principal Francis Rojas, who also eats the school lunch, agreed that the availability of these nutrition facts could also be improved by having them posted in the cafeteria. For example, if a certain food option on the menu contains nuts, a sign could be posted in that particular line
While the information is not posted in this way at MHS, there are ways to access it online on the nutrition department’s website. On this website, there are monthly meal plans, nutrition education, and even some fitness plans that anyone can access. However, few people know about this website and how to find the information they want or need.
If students eat both breakfast and lunch at school, they meet about fifty percent of their daily recommended dietary needs. There are many options offered for both breakfast and lunch; however, few students know the ingredients or amount of calories and carbs.
According to Director of Student Nutrition Services Sandy Huynh, steps are being taken to try to make it so parents and students more aware of where to find this information. The nutrition website is nutrition.musd.org, with allergen reports and other information located under the menu tab. The meals are designed to have five different components that also limits saturated fat and sodium that some people may remember having on the elementary school lunch menus; Whole grain, lean protein, fresh fruit and vegetables, and milk. The nutrition department is trying to make the website easily accessible and easy to use for parents and students, however it would be pointless if people did not know about it.
I believe this information is vital, as it could greatly affect someone’s life. Without the proper nutrition information, students can not make the correct nutrition decisions, such as, what to eat, when to eat it, and how healthy their food is. These decisions can greatly affect the physical health of the students in either a positive or negative way, depending on the decisions they make about their food.
According to Rojas, students with diabetes already have special arrangements made, so it may not apply as much to them. However, students with severe allergies could potentially consume something to trigger an allergic reaction without knowing the substance they are allergic to was in their food. Making this information more easily accessible by providing it in the lunch lines, and broadcasting the nutrition website more thoroughly could avoid a life endangering situation.
