HEALTHY SCHOOL MEALS

Introduction of School Meals that Include Fruits and Vegetables in the Schools of Walpole MA

Table of Contents

Thesis Statement1

Introduction1

Community1

Baseline2

Target2

Topic Development3

Nutritional requirement in children3

Problem3

Causes of problem4

School meals4

Healthy eating plan5

Importance of school meals in the schools of Walpole MA6

Community Interventions6

Community's efforts to intervene the health issue7

Strengths7

Weaknesses8

Agency assessment8

Nursing Interventions8

Recommendations for nursing interventions9

Summary10

Conclusion10

References12

Appendix14

School Meals that Include Fruits and Vegetables in the Schools of Walpole MA

Thesis Statement

Increase the proportion of school districts that require schools to make fruits or vegetables available whenever other food is offered or sold.

Introduction

The topic area that I have chosen for research is “nutrition and weight status”. The reason for choosing this topic is the fact that many people do not know the nutrition requirements of their body. As a result, they do not take healthy diet which results in weight loss/gain, deficiency and excessiveness of various nutritions in the body. The objective of the “healthy people 2020” plan is to increase the proportion of schools that offer nutritious foods and beverages outside of meals. However, in particular, I am going to address the following objective:

“Increase the proportion of school districts that require schools to make fruits or vegetables available whenever other food is offered or sold” (healthy people 2020, p. 3).

Community

I have chosen Walpole, Massachusetts which is located in the Norfolk County in the United States of America. The reason behind making this choice is to improve the education system of the town which is run by the school committee. Any change made by that the committee is binding on all the educational institutes. Therefore, it is easy to implement nutrition and weight policy in the menu of school cafeteria. Before proceeding to the topic, consider reviewing the enrollment statistics of Walpole, MA (city-data, 2011).

Figure 1: percentage of students enrolled in educational institutes

The above figure clearly displays that maximum 25% children get primary education in school. The literacy rate of the town is very low due to which it is essential to ensure that the nutritional requirements of those children are met, so that the quality of the educational system of Walpole MA can be improved.

Baseline

By 2006 only 6.6 percent of schools in Walpole MA provided fruits and vegetables along with their lunch meals.

Target

The target of the healthy people 2020 plan is to increase the percentage of these schools up to 16.6 percent.

Topic Development

Nutritional requirement in children

According to a recent study, the nutritional requirement of school-age children is very high but their appetite is small. Since children burn a lot of calories in playing and other activities, therefore, it is very important to give them a healthy and balanced diet. The diet plan of children makes their eating habits. Therefore, it is essential to make sure that their diet plan meets the following needs of the children (Day, 2010):

Vitamin

Calcium

Iron

Foliate

Fats

Sugar

Problem

Growing children are actively involved in sports and other activities that require energy. Therefore, it is important to include healthy items in their meals so that they can actively take part in different school and recreational ...