Hello, I'm _____ _____ , and I'm a representative of the Wheatley High School Debate Team. My partner and I will be informing you as to why secondary schools should be responsible for the healthful nutritional content of foods and beverages served on their campuses. Our reasons or contentions in favor of this resolve are: overall student health, student performance, and parental concerns. .
First of, student's health. These snacks and soda machines are dispensing sicknesses. According to Agnes Molnar, director of the Child Nutrition Unit of the Community Food Resource Network in New York City, the danger with vending machines in schools is that students often replace nutritionally balanced school lunches with less nutritious vending machine items. She notes that the greater the vending machine sales, the fewer the school lunches purchased. "Principals and teachers should care more about what their students are putting into their mouths," Molnar said. Carol Beebe, executive director of the New York State School Food Service Association, has similar concerns. She is afraid that students may supplant school lunches with candy, soda, or chips from a vending machine. Most schools say that they need vending machines and the profit from fundraisers to improve the school and the children's education, but Dr. Margo Wootan says, "We do need to consider the financial strains that schools face, but schools should not solve fundraising problems at the expense of our children's health." Some children are borderline obese and the food that the schools are serving are basically just contributing to the problem. Schools must consider that they are placing the health of their students in danger, and worsening the medical problems that some already have. "This is the most unfit generation in American history," Lt. Gov. Steve Henry, an orthopedic surgeon said. "I think it is shameful that anyone would want to make money off the health of our children.