Bringing Lunch to School: a privilege?

Today in the Chicago Tribune, I read an article about how the public school in Chicago, Little Village Academy, banned bring lunch from home. This means that the students are forced to buy the school lunch unless they have a medical reason that requires them to bring their own lunch.  Read the article here. The principal decided to implement this rule after "watching students bring 'bottles of soda and flaming hot chips' for lunch." The principal also said, "It's about the nutrition and the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It's milk versus a Coke." At Little Village most of the students only have the option to take the lunch or go hungry. If the student does not qualify for free or reduced price lunches they would have to pay $2.25 for a lunch they don't necessarily like. But on the otherhand if a student is bringing a very unhealthy lunch, it would benefit their health to eat a healthier lunch everyday.

This is a very interesting situation because it asks the question: what role should the government play in individual food choices? But what I find even more interesting is that the situation is almost comepletely reversed at New Trier. Personally I've always thought that people who brought their lunch ate healthier lunches as opposed to the fries, Uncrustables, chips, and soda that many New Trier students eat for lunch. I just so happen to be part of the group that brings their lunch to school and my lunches are almost always really healthy. Its only when I buy lunch that they are unhealthy. Correct me if I'm wrong but I've always been under the impression that bringing a lunch is healthier, like this poster suggests:

I am all for trying to prevent and fix childhood obesity but I think that the actions that the school took might have been slightly too drastic. I think maybe a better approach would've been to inform parents about the importance of a healthy lunch and ask them to make sure their son or daughter has a healthy lunch. But at the same time I feel like I can argue for the ban because I'm assuming that the children at this Chicago public school do not come from wealthy families. Kids might be bringing unhealthy lunches to school because they are cheaper. You can get a 12 pk of soda for $5 whereas a 12 pk of milk (and only 1/2 of the ounces of soda) costs $15. You can get 10 packaged hot dogs totaling 16 oz for $3 but only 9 oz of cut turkey for $5.

    

 Forcing the kids to eat the school lunches would make sure that they were eating something healthy but then again they might choose to not eat anything at all if they don't like the options. And the fact that they have to "force" the kids to eat healthier lunches doesn't seem right either.Overall I think that the school trying to get kids to eat healthier is great, I'm just not sure the school went about it the right way.

Search

Junior Theme has been going pretty smoothly except for one major speed bump: I don't know what to search. The librarians have done an excellent job showing us how to do advanced searches and get exactly what you are looking for but my problem is figuring out what words to put in the search. In one subtopic of my research I have been able to find huge amounts of information because there is a specific category that I am looking under and not much variation. The topic is prescription drug advertising. But one of the other parts, diagnosis, I am having real difficulty because there is such a brood spectrum of what diagnosis includes and I am not sure on the best way to narrow it down. If I search something like "diagnostic tools and prescription drugs" there is a lot that comes up but a lot is specific to cancer or still way too broad. What I am looking for is information on how tools of diagnosis have improved which could possibly be a reason why more people are on prescription drugs then in previous decades. I'm sure I will end up finding something that works but for now I will just have to keep on searching.