By Olivia Morris
Grade 6 Mill Pond School
About 31 percent of children in the U.S. are obese. Schools should not have vending machines with sugary/high calorie snacks. Vending machines in schools should have healthier choices, instead of high calorie, sugary, sodium filled snacks. Kids are not focused in class when they have food in front of them. Kids that don’t have snack money may feel left out. Parents can’t afford to have their kid eating out of a vending machine every day.
Vending machines offer unhealthy snacks, such as Pop-Tarts, pretzels, Snack Mix, Rice Krispie treats, and lots of other junk food. These snacks should be replaced with healthier choices, such as dried fruit, granola, or yogurt.
Most kids do not focus in class if they are eating. They miss what the teacher says, and then she has to repeat what she said, for every kid. Also, kids with crunchy snacks, such as potato chips, or a crinkly bag, can distract other students while they are trying to do their work.
Schools’ hot lunches are well balanced and healthier than sitting in class eating a bag of chips. Kids who do not have snack money may feel left out, if their friend has a snack and they don’t. If a friend lends them money, they may not be able to pay them back. Sugary snacks can slow kids down during the day. They make them feel tired, or groggy.
Some kids are very allergic to certain foods in vending machines. If they don’t know that they are allergic, and they eat the food, they could end up in the emergency room, or even worse, dead. Some people are different, though. If one of their classmates eats the food, then touches them, they can have an allergic reaction, that way, too.
Some people argue that kids should be able to eat snacks whenever they want.
“Vending machines can be used as a quick breakfast, or recess snack for kids who forgot,” someone says on debate.org. Some people want healthy and unhealthy snacks in the vending machines, because if a child chooses a Pop-Tart over yogurt and granola, that’s his or her choice.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, because it gets your brain moving. Starting the day with sugar can make you tired and groggy all day, because you didn’t eat a well- balanced meal.
I think schools should not have vending machines because they can cause many major problems. Kids spend their lunch money on a bag of chips. They make a mess, and on top of that, they get distracted in class. If kids want to eat unhealthy snacks, they can bring them from home, that way, their parents have control over what they eat. Kids all over the world are obese, maybe we can lower the number of obese children by taking these unhealthy snacks out of school.
