Duarte High School Food Essay

When I was younger in elementary I would always remember not being able to wait for recess and lunch, those were my favorites part of the school day because of the food I was getting served. Growing up I started to realize how bad the food the Duare School District (DSC) has been giving the kids. Many students attending Duarte High School are predominantly middle to low-class teens who depend on school for breakfast and lunch. The primary issue being addressed is the food being served for both breakfast and lunch is not beneficial to the student’s health. With a high-calorie count and not enough protein to sustain a growing teenage body, Duarte High School is not doing all it can in order to keep its scholars healthy and eager to learn. Food

The Duarte School District is able to get some healthy and feasible items from the world around. Tara Lohan explores this possibility in her interesting article, “The Ultimate in Eating Local: My Adventures in Urban Foraging” where she explains the pros and cons of Urban Foraging and how it could affect how the world gathers its food. Although school districts cannot get all the material they would like to create healthy meals for their students, some materials are easily accessible, even “the weed you might be stepping over” (Lohan 2). Lohan explains that many of the ingredients usually bought can simply be picked from the ground. This creates not only a more healthy environment because the district is able to gain completely natural food, but it creates a more affordable budget. Foraging can also create a better relationship with the school students and their own food. The school district can create fun and helpful opportunities to gather food from the wilderness to help with food at the school. Generating this fun incentive can encourage students to get closer with others which constructs a community in which “people [can] care for one another” that ultimately helps with creating a better and healthier school environment and that can reflect off of the food the students

The staff and students are disconnected from the food they eat mostly because it is served in plastic bags or paper cartons. Students need to engage with the food they eat in order to create a safer relationship between them and their food. Makenna Goodman explains the harsh reality of growing her own food like chickens and how it feels to kill, and eat them. One thing that the DUSD can do in order to create healthier relationships with students and their foods is to raise some food at schools like chickens in order for the students to be engaged in what they are eating. Goodman vocalizes that many people do not just want the meat packaged, but rather wanting to know, “how that animal lived” and be more connected to the animal itself (Goodman 2). Raising some of the food being served at school also creates benefits because students and staff know that they are getting organic and healthy food, rather than the processed and packaged meats that they would usually buy from the store in bulk. Knowing what the animals are being fed and knowing that they are not being “pumped with feed” and other disgusting artificial flavors creates a more trusting environment within the school (Goodman 3). This school meal plan develops trust and bonding which is beneficial to students as they grow into their adults bodies and go off into the