Nutrition and Healthy Food for Students: A Comparative Report

This report delves into the critical topic of nutrition and healthy food for students, examining policies and standards in both the United Kingdom and the United States. It begins with an introduction outlining the importance of proper nutrition for children's health and well-being, setting the stage fo...Read More

Nutrition and healthy food
for students

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction..............................................................................................................3
Overview of title....................................................................................................................3
Project aim.............................................................................................................................3
Objectives of the project........................................................................................................3
Questions of the project.........................................................................................................3
Chapter 2: Literature review......................................................................................................4
United Kingdom school food trust.........................................................................................4
Food-based and nutrition-based standards.............................................................................4
Nutrition service program in US schools...............................................................................5
Chapter 3: Methodology............................................................................................................6
Chapter 4: Results and discussion..............................................................................................7
Chapter 5: Conclusion................................................................................................................8
Chapter 6: Recommendations....................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

Chapter 1: Introduction
Overview of title
Nutrition in children is important in order to make sure that the child have right to
health and can assist to all the healthy services they need. There are a number of children who
are ill because of unhealthy nutrition and unavailability of healthy living standards. It is
necessary for a child to achieve proper nutrition diet so that they can live a happy and healthy
life. In the following research a number of different policies and standards which are set by
government of United Kingdom and United States for the schools providing meals for
children in their premises or considered. The research aims at understanding the requirement
of meeting the standards and importance of these policies for schools and students. The
findings of the research helps in understanding various methods and steps that can be taken
by schools in order to meet the nutritional requirement in children which will help them to
lead a prosperous and happy life.
Project aim “To identify different policies by government in United Kingdom to address
nutrition in children“
Objectives of the project
 To develop knowledge about healthcare males in United Kingdom through the United
Kingdom school Food trust
 To understand the concept of food waste and nutrition-based standards
 To understand the concept of nutrition service program in US schools
Questions of the project
 What is United Kingdom school food trust?
 What are the different food-based and nutrition based standards?
 What are the nutrition service program in US schools?

Chapter 2: Literature review
United Kingdom school food trust
According to Everitt, Engler-Stringer and Vatanparast, (2020), it is necessary to bring
a detailed, feasible and practical change in the programs of school mail. All the schools
throughout England are required to ensure that the meals they are providing to children have
supported balanced nutrition. They also motivate to increase the number of children who are
successfully provided with this food as school meals have great impact on health of children.
The schools in United Kingdom have small kitchen stuff and they have to work hard in order
to provide students with the required meal they deserve filled with nutrition’s. Appealing
school meals which are healthy enough plays an important role in providing nutrition to
students and also reducing intake of unhealthy food by them. They are a good model working
towards good nutrition and leading children to choose a proper healthy diet during other time
of the day as well. However national government in United Kingdom as well as United States
do not directly involved in day to day preparation of these mails but the policies and financial
support which are provided by them to the schools are helping the children to successfully
achieve a balanced and healthy diet. The food and nutrition service department are
successfully making policies and procedures along with providing financial benefits to
schools. They are successfully helping schools by providing revised guidelines in every
certain number of years so that healthy meals can be provided to students in schools.
Food-based and nutrition-based standards
According to Meier, Brady and Scheidel, (2020), Standards of school Food trust have
been revised in order to relate that food provision in schools include nutrition based standards
as well as food-based standards. These standards are specifically providing the portion size,
nutrition balance, food balance and limit of food that is to be provided to students. The
nutrition-based standards are helping in providing upper limit of fibre, vitamins, minerals, fat
and sugar in food which is provided to students. There is also a timeframe of providing food
to students which are successfully issued by these organisations. The meals as well as snacks
which are provided in schools are to be specifically based upon nutrition as well as food
standards. It is duty of schools to implement various standards through developing appealing
menus which can attract students as well. One of the major considerations is implementation
of new standards in student eating meals. There are a number of progresses which are

monitored leading towards healthy lifestyle of students and children. The estimated
percentage of students in primary schools as well as secondary schools are increasing day by
day and the requirement for standards in mail provided by them are also altered according to
increase in this population.The food-based and nutrition-based standards helps in setting a bar
for providing food to students which can help in development of nutrition diet for children
throughout United Kingdom and United States. Providing food-based and nutrition-based
meals to students also help in preventing obesity in children. It is often seen that children
develop and healthy eating habits due to which they have to face the problem of obesity.
There are a number of students who are consuming high-fat and high sugar food which leads
to obesity and a number of other disease. It is necessary to encourage children as well as
student through school meal plans which can help them providing a potentially healthy lunch
and breakfast in school.
Nutrition service program in US schools
According to Vericker, Gearing and Kim, (2019), reducing obesity and providing
importance to minimise child hunger and major priorities of US government. Providing
school meals is one of the effective way to meet these goals and provide significant source of
nutrition to children in school. It is necessary that all the schools mails and meeting the US
dietary guidelines. The lunch are supposed to provide one third of nutrition needs and the
breakfast should provide ¼ needs of nutrition. The national programme for school lunch is
providing meals to more than 31 million children in around one lakh schools throughout the
country. Major children in this school belong to low income households and are also taking
their breakfast at school. The regulation is strictly prohibited in the percentage of calories that
students can gain from fat, cholesterol and sodium content. There are a number of different
strategies incorporated in school meal programmes which include modelling healthy food
choices for children which can also be brought by them at home. The schools are supported
through a number of different nutrition’s team who provide training as well as technical
assistance to food service staff in schools. The national food service management institute in
Oxford is also providing training to food service staff in schools. It is necessary to provide
the changing composition of food in school for the school meal programme so that the
amount of sodium and sugar in meals can be lowered. The standards for providing food in
schools are revised after every certain period of time and it is necessary that minimal
nutrition requirement for students are maintained by schools which will help in meeting

nutritional needs in students. The program also aims at discouraging vending machine in
school campus which are serving unhealthy food to students.
Chapter 3: Methodology
There are a number of different type of data which are required to be collected by
researcher in order to conduct a research successfully. Data can be basically divided into
primary, secondary, qualitative and quantitative data. Primary data are the first hand data
which is collected by the researcher through different techniques such as interviews,
questionnaires et cetera. On the other hand secondary data consist of the data which is
collected by the resources that are already present such as newspapers, articles, journals and
so on. On the other hand qualitative data refers to the data that characterises and
approximates. They are non-numerical data and it can be conducted through 1 to 1
interviews, conducting focus groups or a number of different similar methods (Anderson,
Gallagher and Ritchie, 2018). Quantitative data refers to the data that can be measured in
number or accounts and have a unique numerical value which can be associated to them. In
the following research secondary data is used for drawing conclusions and recommendations.
The secondary data used for the following research has been derived from already present
information on nutrition provided in schools. Data have been collected with the help of
already present research, internet sources and different newspaper articles and journals.

Chapter 4: Results and discussion
The following research successfully helps in understanding different policies which
are developed by government in United States and United Kingdom in order to meet the
dietary requirements of students in schools. It is often seen that students are provided with
two meals in a day and it is necessary that both of these meals are filled with nutrition for
students (Corkins and et. al., 2016). There are a number of different policies and procedures
such as school mail policies, food based on nutrition-based standards, food and nutrition
service programme in US schools which are governed by different governments and provide
standards to school. School can successfully use these policies and procedures in order to
help provide nutrition to children. It can also be analysed that using help from these
guidelines will help schools in attaining different support such as financial as well as
technical support from different organisations to successfully used the revised standards in
their meal programs.

Chapter 5: Conclusion
The research successfully helps in concluding the importance of nutrition for children.
Through studying different programmes which are used in United Kingdom and United
States for providing meals in schools to students the nutrition level provided to students can
be enhanced. The research also states that major population of student belong to lower
middle-class family and providing them with nutrition will help them achieve a better
standard of living. The nutrition program in school also helps to develop good eating habits in
students which can be later utilised by them in meals they consume after the school. Is a great
way to develop good eating habits in students which can help them in successfully achieving
better living standards along with good eating habits throughout their life. This is a great way
to reduce the nutrition imbalance and diseases which are caused due to inadequate diet in
children.

Chapter 6: Recommendations
Some of the recommendations which can be used by schools providing meals to students
RS follows:
 According to the food and nutrition service of USDA it is necessary that nutrient
targets should be adopted on a scientific basis so that a standard is set for menu
planning in different school meals and nutrition-based and food-based planning can
be monitored successfully
 In order to make sure that the school meals are aligned with dietary guidelines for
Americans and British it is necessary to improve the health fullness of school meals.
The schools are required to adopt the standards in menu planning which will increase
the amount of fruits, whole grains, vegetables in the food that is provided to students
so that the minimum and maximum level of calories intake by students can be
managed.
 It is necessary that schools are working together with state agencies and a number of
different professional organisations in industry so that the extensive support can be
gathered in order to provide food service to students according to the revised mail
requirements. There can be support from technical assistance as well as new
procedures for monitoring the quality of school meals which are required to meet
different dietary guidelines and providing information of continuous quality
development in food monitoring.
 Various agencies can also take help and support from federal departments in order to
conduct different research and study on nutrition in children which will help in
following the revised mail requirements for different school breakfast programme as
well as national school lunch programme.
 The intake of calories must be related to the energy intake for individual children
which can be divided according to age and grade categories. The impact of reducing
the sodium content in beagles provided by school will also help to provide better
living style for students.
 The effects upon cost, food as well as waste of food must be continuously governed
by school in order to make sure that there is no wastage of food and the targeted
approach of decreasing the nutrient inadequacy in children can be managed

References
Books and Journals
Corkins, M.R. and et. al., 2016. Nutrition in children and adolescents. Medical
Clinics, 100(6), pp.1217-1235.
Anderson, M.L., Gallagher, J. and Ritchie, E.R., 2018. School meal quality and academic
performance. Journal of Public Economics, 168, pp.81-93.
Vericker, T.C., Gearing, M.E. and Kim, S.D., 2019. Updated Nutrition Standards for School
Meals Associated With Improved Weight Outcomes for Boys in Elementary
School. Journal of School Health, 89(11), pp.907-915.
Meier, C.L., Brady, P. and Scheidel, C., 2020. What Do Parents Think About School Meals?
An Exploratory Study of Rural Middle School Parents’ Perceptions. The Journal
of School Nursing, p.1059840520924718.
Everitt, T., Engler-Stringer, R. and Vatanparast, H., 2020. Comparing Diet Quality of School
Meals versus Food Brought from Home. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice
and Research, pp.1-7.