Off Campus Lunches
Don’t you just love getting chicken, that even fast food places reject, Fruit that tastes like chemicals, and cold french fries all thrown together on a tray? I would hope not. Lets face it, we all hate school lunches. Most of the time they don’t feed us enough food and it is very gross. Also, a lot of kids take a packed lunch which is okay, but it gets old taking a PB&J sandwich that sits in your locker for about four hours everyday for a year. So this brings us to the question, why can’t students leave school for lunch? There are so many other places school cafeteria food doesn’t even compare to. If they were allowed to leave, they would have more lunch options, become more independent, and gain more social experience with the real world. Schools wouldn’t have to make as many lunches for kids which would allow them to make them higher quality. Students should be able to leave school for lunch so that they can eat healthier and become more independent.
If students were allowed to leave for lunch, they would be able to eat healthier, more nutritious lunches. It would also give them a chance to go home and make any meal they want. Some people like school lunches but I’m sure that chicken every day for a week isn’t appealing to anyone. I’m not saying it is cheap to feed 1000 growing teens a great meal that also gets around state laws, but school lunches have gotten way more unhealthy. “Komisar looked at two less-examined aspects of the school lunch program. The first is the practice of taking up to $1 billion of “surplus” fruits, vegetables, and meats that the USDA supplies to the program and, rather than cooking them into healthy meals, turning them into high-fat processed foods.” We could eliminate this problem by letting kids eat wherever they want. Mrs. Q from parents.com says,”Lunches at my school are like overly packaged TV dinners gone bad.” They are already horrible and continue to get worse. That is why they should be able to leave to get a different lunch. Students could go out to lunch with their parents or drive somewhere with their friends. It would be a good way for teens to become more responsible.
Allowing students to leave for lunch would make them a lot more independent. Teens could show teachers that they are responsible enough to leave and come back in time for lunch. “So from eating out, we can also learn how to make wise choices.” This would make students prepared for college by enabling them to leave campus and eat what they want. This independence would get kids ready to face the real world. “It provides a semi-sheltered climate to allow students to grow and become responsible.” This would give teens the privilege of not being watched every second of the day. If students disobeyed the rules of when they should be back, they could take away the privilege or give punishment. Throughout high school students don’t have very many opportunities to show how independent they are any letting them leave for lunch would be a perfect way for teens to show teachers they can be trusted and can survive in the real world.
I know a lot of high school students who are very shy and keep to themselves. With the ability to leave school during lunch, kids would become more outgoing because there would be many more chances for them to socialize and interact with the real world. “If students have the privilege of off-campus lunch, they will gain more responsibility and more experience on how the real world works.” All kids have a big part in the future of our job economy, so they need to have real life skills which can be taught as early as high school. “Also students learn responsibility and it's helping us be ready for our independent life as adults.” Students could go to restaurants, home (great if they forgot an assignment), or even to a local park. They would be able to relax with friends and not have to deal with the drama from school.
Some people think that if kids were allowed to leave for lunch, they would only eat fast food. However, this doesn’t make a difference in what they would eat because if they have a car, what stops them from eating fast food when they are away from school? You might think it is an issue, but it has no effect on what they would eat anyway. It would actually allow teens to eat healthier because they would have more time to go home and make a healthy meal. Most teens are busy with sports and after school activities, so they don’t have time to make a good meal and are usually grabbing something fatty and processed as they rush out the door. Therefore it is not an issue.
Kids who are allowed to leave school for lunch would become more like adults and eat more nutritious foods. If schools would just give students a chance, they could show teachers that they are responsible and they can handle leaving for lunch. Students wouldn’t have to suffer eating the gross, expensive school lunches. There would be more opportunities to socialize and interact with the real world which would give them a chance to prepare for college. also, they would be given many more opportunities to eat healthier. Lastly, they would have more real life experience as mature adults. While there are a few set backs, letting students leave campus for lunch would promote healthy eating and real world experiences.
http://grist.org/food/2011-12-16-a-dolllar-badly-spent-new-facts-on-processed-school-lunches/
http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-students-be-allowed-to-leave-school-during-lunch-time
http://www.therideronline.com/our-opinion/2013/01/03/off-campus-lunches-benefit-students-district/