Title: These Days, School Lunch Hours Are More Like 15 Minutes : The Salt : NPR
Headings: These Days, School Lunch Hours Are More Like 15 Minutes
Eating And Health
These Days, School Lunch Hours Are More Like 15 Minutes
The Salt
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Content: Under federal rules, schools have to increase the availability and consumption of fruits and vegetables — among other changes. It's part of an effort to improve nutrition and combat childhood obesity. But eating more healthful foods can take more time, LeBarre says. " It's going to take longer to eat a salad than it will to eat french fries." At many schools, lunch schedules aren't changing. Julia Bauscher, who is president of a national advocacy group called the School Nutrition Association, says administrators are under intense pressure to increase instruction time and boost standardized test scores. The lunch period is often the first place they look to steal time. " [They've] got to get in this many instructional minutes, and this is our expected annual yearly progress on the test," she says. " You've got two important and competing priorities there." Exacerbating the time crunch, nationally, is the reality that more students are taking part in the free or reduced-cost school lunch programs.