There has been a lot of focus on the school lunch phenomena, but most of that spotlight has shined on the meals themselves. Unfortunately, school lunches aren't the only source of food in our learning institutions.
Vending machines are a part — viewed not so much as a source of food and drink for the future of our country, but as a source of revenue for financially strapped schools.
There is a gigantic disconnect among the population as to whether our schools are overfunded or underfunded. No one seems to think the current allotment is the right amount, but they disagree as to whether there is too much or too little.
Schools use the vending machines to fill the gaps not provided by tax money. And even those who think they pay too much in taxes wouldn't mind if kids got more money, just not from them.
If schools need money that badly, they would be better off putting in vending machines in places where kids don't have easy access to them. If this is how we are going to fund our children's education, so be it. But let's get the machines out of the schools where they have the most potential to do the harm.
Even if kids are going to eat this stuff anyway, there isn't any reason for them to do so while at school, while they are learning what they need to know.
But there is this acceptance that vending machines need to be part of the education process. And until they are gone, if they ever will disappear, can we make them sources of healthier food?
This provision in the Senate version of the Child Nutrition Act would regulate nutrition standards for vending machines. Though the final bill results will tell us for sure whether that will happen, and how.
The article goes into innovations to vending machines and companies willing to fill new regulations for what can go into those vending machines.
We seem to have so little control over what goes on in the schools, and even less concern over the long-term ramifications of what we do.
Sure schools need money. But schools are in the business of educating children. And the best way to educate them is to make sure they are in the best position to learn. Vending machines, as is, are an antithesis to a proper learning environment.
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