All around the United States, many hungry students have been taking their anger onto social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to “dish out” their anger about the “new” school lunch policy that went into effect in September of 2012, as the Washington Post reported on. This issue has been controversial over the past three years by students, teachers. and parents.

The students are upset because they are getting served less food which causes the student’s mind to trail off to thinking about food instead of classwork. On October 2nd, 2012, New York Times had an article on the student’s view on the new policy and about ? of the students complained about this new policy. When the students are hungry, it causes them to not think as well as usual, causing them to get lower grades, and be in a bad mood. Some students participate in multiple sports and when the football players are served smaller portion sizes, then they used to be served, it causes them to become hungry and not perform as well as usual. If you are participating in football and you’re about 200 pounds, you should get a bigger serving size compared to a 100 pound girl, who is not active in any sports.However if you do not participate in any sports
and you are served many calories, you will be at greater risk of being obese. Either way the “new” school lunch policy is unfair to the athletic kids and the non athletic kids.

Parents are thinking that this idea about so called “Healthy School Lunches” is outrageous and unfair, as reported by CNN, on November 21st, 2012. The children and teens don’t enjoy being hungry, the teachers don’t enjoy cranky students, and the parents don’t enjoy bad grades on their child’s report card. Parents believe that this is not a good idea and strongly dislike this idea compared to the past school lunch programs. In the past the average school lunch meal costed roughly two dollars and eight cents, as the New York Times Reported. Today the average school lunch meal costs around three dollars and twelve cents, as The New York Times, reported. That is a whopping one dollar and four cents more than it used to be, and the students are not getting their stomachs full, like they used to. Most public schools offer a “Ala Carte,” which is a spot where students may purchase food such as cookies, ice cream, and chips; which is not so “healthy.” “Ala Carte” is offered to students after lunches, and many students flee to the lines, waiting to get their unhealthy snack. When students purchase “Ala Carte” the costs of the items they purchase gets deducted from their school lunch account.

Teachers are not too fond of this new plan either. After lunch, students go to class, and they have about three hours left of school. By the time it is one or two, students are cranky and hungry, which frustrates the teachers and causes the students to not think as much because of lack of brain power, which causes students to get bad grades.

Personally, my view on this controversial topic is that schools should have different meal plans that cater to the specific student and their needs. Students vary in many different shapes and sizes and I believe that their lunch plans should vary also. A football player shouldn’t be eating what a non-athletic student, who doesn’t have a very active lifestyle eats. Everyone is different, so why should schools be feeding students like they’re all the same, I believe that schools should look over and reevaluate  their decisions about so called “healthy” school lunches.