The Student Nutrition Association says that schools must provide students with fruits and vegetables, low-fat or fat-free milk, whole grains, and lean protein at every meal. In 2010, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act was passed, changing how students eat school lunches. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 raised the minimum nutrient standards for school lunches to reduce the number of overweight children in the United States. Many private schools in Chennai (https://www.babajividhyashram.org/) have started initiatives recently to offer school meals considering children’s health. Read more about the impact of school lunch and its role in improving academic success here. Another highlighting feature is that the USDA introduced higher nutrition standards for students and mandated that schools be audited every three years.

Impact Of School Lunch On Children Suggest By A List Of CBSE Schools In Chennai

The School Nutrition Association (SNA) provides statistics about the National School Lunch Program, including free lunches. 19.2 million students are eligible for free lunches, but the National School Lunch Program costs $12.65 billion. More than 30 million students participated in the National School Lunch Program in 2012-2013.

Students who lead an unhealthy lifestyle are more likely to fall ill, hurting their academic performance. Healthy school lunches are cost-effective and improve test scores, but the cost is $80 per student per year. The next question is whether healthier school lunches are associated with reducing the number of overweight students in the classroom.

Eating healthy food with more fruit, vegetables, lean protein, and whole grains will help fight obesity in kids, a common problem around the globe. Therefore, it is better to address this at a young age with school meals wherein they will not have an option to eat fast food, thereby achieving good health benefits.

School Meals Play An Important Role In Academic Success

The debate over the new school lunch law was not focused on a more nutritious school lunch but would help students learn more effectively. By conducting a study to examine the impact of healthier school lunches on academic test scores, they found that students at schools that contract with a healthy lunch perform better than their peers. Students who have access to proper nutrition are less likely to exhibit aggression. While providing healthier lunches to students may seem expensive, it is less expensive than increasing class size, which would result in a 0.22 standard deviation increase in test scores.

Scientists have been investigating the relationship between nutrition and student performance for many years. They found that students who ate fast food performed worse on standardized literary assessments. Their physical and mental health influences students’ performance, and their school lunch eventually impacts their performance. Poor nutrition and eating habits will compromise students’ ability to learn at the pace required for academic success. For the benefit of students, school lunches should be healthier. Therefore, they claimed that the Agriculture Secretary’s proposal to roll back some of the requirements is not wise.

The effect of lunch quality on student achievement by comparing year-to-year changes between in-house preparation of school meals and outside vendors with varying menu quality within a given school is examined. The quality of school lunches provided by a list of CBSE schools in Chennai through private companies and the quality of those lunches to the quality of the regular diet is compared. They concluded that contracting with a private company to provide healthier meals did not affect the number of school lunches sold in the area, supporting their statement that food quality differences, rather than food quantity, are responsible for the test score improvements they observe.

Final Words
Thereby concluding that physical and mental health influences students’ performance, and their school lunch impacts their performances, necessary steps have to be taken to make school meals mandatory everywhere. Teachers can improve student academic performance by improving school lunches and can do so while continuing to fulfill their other responsibilities. The government has to take necessary actions in foreseeing the benefits of school meals in terms of a child’s physical and mental health.