Some kids attending school rely on school lunch because it’s free for them and their parents do not have money to provide them with their own lunch five days of the week. Due to this, kids are provided with disgusting and unhealthy food in their school cafeterias. They are supposed to be fueling their minds to learn for the rest of the day with healthy and nutritional foods, but how can they possibly do this when they are being fed literally nothing but garbage? The food industry is so low that it will serve kids at school food that has been declared as “unfit for human consumption,” by the USDA (Schlosser 219). It is ridiculous to know that this is being approved and it really shows how the food industry and the government work together in trying to making the most profit that is available. This topic interested me because I thought of myself as a student at school. I have been eating school lunch since my whole life and now I completely regret it. I thought I was being fed healthy, nutritional food but what I was really eating was probably old and contaminated meat. The thought of this really makes cringe and it probably made you cringe too. All of us have been eating school lunches since our first day of kindergarten and it should be stopped immediately. Kids in elementary, junior high school and high school are all still growing and we need good nutrition from the food we eat. School lunch is probably equally as bad as eating at McDonald’s or any other fast food restaurant.
“A 1983 investigation by NBC News said that the Cattle King Packing Company – at the time, the USDA’s largest supplier of ground beef for school lunches and a supplier to Wendy’s – routinely processed cattle that were already dead before arriving at its plant, hid diseased cattle from inspectors, and mixed rotten meat that had been returned by customers into packages of hamburger meat” (Schlosser 218). This quote really disturbed me because it tells readers about a real investigation that was done by a national news channel and the secrets they had found in a food companies factories. All these kids want is a good meal provided by their school and what they actually get is diseased and disgusting old meat that was dead before it was even slaughtered. I sure wouldn’t want my kids eating school lunch after finding out this information. How much lower can these food companies be? When will they end all the pain and suffering the outcome of their unhealthy food gives us for the kids that simply want to eat a good meal? It isn’t fair to the kids, parents and to anyone else eating it. This is just one example of how messed up food companies are. They take making the most profit possible rather than giving kids something healthy to eat.
Hey Tina,
ReplyDeleteYour topic is really good, its intriguing because we are all students as well and we have all eaten school cafeteria, whether its here or high school, or elementary. To know that the government knows what kids and young adults are being fed, and allowing it! is quite ridiculous. I agree with just about everything you said but I like that you pointed out how eating school lunch is just as bad as eating McDonalds.
Why thank you Katherine! It really is ridiculous if you think about it because its not better than eating McDonalds. Maybe even worse. I'd have to do more research to find out!
ReplyDeleteYour quote just grossed me out a lil. They are using cattle that have been dead for a while and turning it into hamburger meat? This just leaves an awful image in my head of rotting carcus surrounded by flies. These practices really should be regulated because you are right, the meat is being used to feed today's youth, and they are the ones that are effected the most fatally by contaminated meat.
ReplyDeleteMary,
ReplyDeleteYour response kind of grossed me out because of the image with the flies and dead carcasses all over the place. Haha! Yes it is being fed to todays youth and these practices really need to be regulated. Absolutely ridiculous!
When you think of a school cafeteria you think of healthy food thats clean and safe to eat. After finding out about the dirty meat being fed to our youths you start to wonder how cold are the hearts of the government and meat packing executives are? Why would anybody want to put our youth in any danger knowing the fact that the meat is dirty, let alone contaminated. They need to make some serious changes to these meat packing plants to ensure that not only kids artesafe but everyone else as well. We cant afford to put any other kids at risk because thats just wrong. If the company would rather make a quick buck then to worry about childrens welfare, then maybe some strict regulations or penalties should be set.
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I'm trying to say in this blog post. These children who don't know a thing about what they are eating aren't aware of the real dangers of their food. It is horrible to think about.