Analyzing environmental impacts school meal options have on inner-city student schools in America

Introduction 
John Mackey once said, “A healthy diet is a solution to many of our health-care problems. It’s the most important solution.”1 This statement awakened a topic that should be at the forefront of thoughts when discussing issues related to food justice. Understanding this importance, my research will discuss how a healthier diet in meals provided for free to lower-income inner-city schools is a prevalent unimplemented issue that has no immediate plan for future improvements. School programs, such as the “School Breakfast Program (SBP)”2 were created to overcome the eating obstacles students are faced with during the academic day. These programs have shown to provide low-nutritional quality food to students in the inner-city, students in the inner-city are typically more marginalized and have fewer opportunities. The school meals provided for inner-city schools are not nutritious enough to supplement a healthy meal and the school day is considered the largest block for a student during the academic year, which means the meals provided is affecting the students consuming it in many ways. Much improvement is needed in the programs that provide two and in some case three meals for lower-income inner-city students throughout the week. By providing more nutritious meals for students, we are positively influencing the environment to have positive growth. With a healthier meal option, students will be at lower risks to becoming obese, diabetics. There will be noticeable growth with students’ academics and level of participation when their meals are changed. Students’ chances of limiting medical conditions are less likely to occur within their population when provided a healthy school meal.  
 
Inner-city school and their meal options 
An inner-city school is a school located in the central area of a city. Sometimes these areas are populated with minorities and underrepresented groups of people. This leaves disadvantaged individuals with more disadvantages in society. One of my research findings discusses the eating habits of African American adolescents in inner-city schools. The authors of this research study, McDuffie and George presents being overweight as a complex mixture of “social, cultural, environmental, and lifestyle factors”3. The group of adolescents studied is a good representation of an underrepresented group of members in society. When understanding the complex mix and the fact that African American adolescents are more likely to be overweight one can understand this has become a prevalent underrepresented issue related to environmental issues. According to McDuffie and George, African American adolescents have developed poor eating habits in schools and the driving force behind this eating habit is the human sensory factors with taste leading all decisions from the students they surveyed. This sensory is influenced by the complex mix that they present early in their research. The social environment these students come from do not present healthy eating styles, in fact many of these students are coming from communities that do not have grocery stores. Their communities have many convenient stores and mini-marts. However, when deeply looking at communities in the inner-city, such as Cleveland, Ohio, one can see that food swamps are prevalent4. This simple force of sensory can become an actual problem when understanding that in these low-income city’s food resources are limited. When food sources are limited a healthy and diverse diet becomes less of a reality for many underrepresented groups. Story et al presents trans-fat, sugary foods and beverages, portion sizes and higher calorie foods as chemical changes in the food children eat during school in this generation5. This can result in a cycle and everlasting high populations of students in these groups eating an insufficient portion of food and nutrients. Having an insufficient meal quality can relay a health problem, which is initially an environmental problem. When faced with an unhealthy diet one can only imagine diabetes, heart conditions, organ failures, and obesity that may occur. When low-income inner-city individuals are faced with diet-related body failures, they are forced to seek medical attention and treatment. This treatment requires a doctor, a hospital, medical resources, financial resources, and other resources. Ultimately, this is an exhausting practice and could easily be avoided when a child is provided a healthy meal with an understanding of what they are eating. This understanding of their meal quality will help to seek less nutritional and readily available food at their schools or at these convenience stores.  
School meal programs and statistical data of participation 
“Though school meal programs cannot solve household food insecurity, they can ameliorate it to some degree by providing a school day meal for children who consume lower quantities or quality of food at home.” 6 Moffat and Thrasher explain a school meal program as a meal to make a student’s day better. Typically, to ensure a student has a better day it starts with the nutrition that the student consumes. A school is a place where students spend most of their day during an academic week. When acknowledging this, one must acknowledge that students receive two of their meals: breakfast and lunch, during their school day. In some cases, students receive their third meal of the day at their after-school program. School breakfast-lunch programs initially aim to provide students with an adequate meal, however, that is not the case. Many of the school meal programs have poor quality food that would not be the first choice when it comes to consumption. Recent studies by The Journal of Nutrition have concluded that student participation in the School Breakfast Program is low. This study also concluded that breakfast skipping and selection of foods of low-nutritional quality in the morning are common, despite socio-economic backgrounds.7 When understanding that all students are avoiding these programs, despite finances we can acknowledge that the meal quality overall is unappealing and has little to do with knowledge of what is being prepared, but that the meal is not the preferred consumption amongst these students surveyed and observed.  
Continuing, Story et al introduces the hypothesis that environmental changes have influenced the obesity epidemic due to the school food environment being different from before. There are higher calorie foods and low nutritional value snacks available for purchase.8 There is also poorer quality in the School Breakfast Program’s food options which is influential in the very low participation of the program. There was research that presented nearly 5% of students consumed the School Breakfast Program’s vegetables. 9 This is a relatively low participation in the consumption of vegetables. This research also presented that 83.1% of students in this school ate breakfast and of that number 79.2% of those students ate their breakfast at home. These statistics provided highlight that students have a preference to eat at home. 
Environmental impact 
When an adolescent does not receive the appropriate number of micronutrients, macronutrients, and calories, these adolescents are at more risk to develop a health condition associated with their eating style. Hence, these school meal programs are providing food that has poor calorie and nutritional benefits these adolescents impact the environment is negatively influenced. Parents who send their children to more conveniently located inner-city schools are faced with their adolescent having health conditions. These health conditions can range from diabetes, malnourishment, obesity, and organ failure. From these health conditions, parents have no choice but to seek expensive medical care from hospitals and doctors. When a parent follows this path, they are forced to pay bills, buy prescriptions, purchase required medical equipment and revisit the hospital constantly. Overall this health factor creates an unhealthy system to function with.  
Another aspect to acknowledge the environment being impacted is how food choice influences a student’s behavior in the class. Initially, an individual who is from a community that has these disparities understands how these food dilemmas affect the adolescent’s behavior, therefore they can appropriately solve the disruptions. However, this is not the case, from personal experience working in the inner-city of Miami, Florida at Brownsville Middle School I observed differently. The teachers at this middle school were from suburbia and had little to no experience with inner-city students before there teaching job with Brownsville. Teachers would send the students to in-school suspension for very minor offenses such as speaking aloud to agree with the teacher about a topic they may have brought up. Overall, these students are discouraged and limited when they are in these schools. This experience may change an adolescent’s experience with their communities. 
Declines in obesity due to positive programs 
In Kings County, Washington Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) was implemented during 2010-2012, which also included a school education component. Provided only to low-income schools, hence their high risk of obesity, this program’s aim was to decline obesity rates through more nutritious meals and educational components in the student’s’ educational path. There was a statistically significant decline in obesity prevalence in CPPW schools yet no change in non CPPW schools according to Kern et al. Kern et al findings suggest that focused and comprehensive policy systems, and environment change interventions can reduce obesity in youth.10 Implementing more programs that promote healthy eating through education and meal selections could benefit more communities, other than Kings County.  
Conclusion  
When analyzing the environmental impacts school meal options have on inner-city student schools in America, we can see that there is a dilemma when discussing the quality and nourishment of the food provided. According to Story et al, 6.5 million youth are in after-school programs. “More support and regulatory action are needed by federal state, and local authorities to strengthen and improve healthy eating and nutrition education in schools.”11 With this statement mentioned by Story et al, we can accept that there needs to be some system in place to ensure the environmental impacts do not occur with such a large population of youth. This research has analyzed that populations who suffer the most regarding health status are higher in poverty rates. The adolescents in these populations have limited food choice selections and choose not to eat the currently provided food choices due to sensory factors. These sensory factors are influenced by a complex mixture of an adolescent’s environment. By promoting healthy lifestyle choices through education and meal selections these environmental challenges could be avoided.

​References 
Amin, S. A., Yon, B. A., Taylor, J. C., & Johnson, R. K. (2015). Impact of the National School Lunch Program on Fruit and Vegetable Selection in Northeastern Elementary Schoolchildren, 2012-2013. Burlington: Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health. 
Business Dictionary. (2018, November 11). Environmental impact. Retrieved from Business Dictionary: www.businessdictionary.com/definition/environmental-impact.html 
Dykstra, H., Davey, A., Fisher, J. O., Polonsky, H., Sherman, S., Abel, M. K., . . . Bauer, K. W. (2015). Breakfast-Skipping and Selecting Low-Nutritional Quality Foods for Breakfast Are Common among Low-Income Urban Children, Regardless of Food Security Status. Journal of Nutrition, 630-636. 
Kern, E., Chan, N. L., Fleming, D. W., & Krieger, J. W. (2014). Declines in Student Obesity Prevalence Associated with a Prevention Initiative- King County Washington, 2012. Washington: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (CDC). 
Mackey, J. (unknown, n.d. n.d.). John Mackey Quote. Retrieved from Brainy Quote: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_mackey_697648 
McDuffie, T. E., & George, R. J. (2009). The Journal of Negro Education. School Day Eating Habits of Inner-City African American Adolescents, 114-122. 
Moffat, T., & Thrasher, D. (2014). School meal programs and their potential to operate as school-based obesity prevention and nutrition interventions: case studies from France and Japan. Critical Public Health, 133-146. 
Story, M., Kaphingst , K. M., Robinson-O;Brien, R., & Glanz, K. (2008). Creating Healthy Food and Eating Environments: Policy and Environmental Approaches. Minneapolis: Annual Reviews. 

---