Imagine yourself eating a very hot and steamy gumbo. You sit down at a restaurant after a long day. You clap your hands as the waiter serves the gumbo. Wanting to resist the juicy shrimp, the flavorful stew, and steamy rice, you take a bite. But your stomach turns as you swallow the bite. Your face scrunches up as you look around the gumbo. Half the shrimp is raw, the rice isn’t cooked enough, and there seems to be hair inside the stew. Your face sorrows as your stomach growl and pushes away the disgusting bowl of gumbo. After leaving an angry note, you storm out of the restaurant hungry and still longing for food as the growling in your stomach gets louder and louder and you walk to the dollar tree to get a granola bar. This scenario happens frequently to students who do not receive enough nutrition from lunches and pay for school lunches. Therefore, it is the school’s responsibility to provide a nutritious lunch to school children because most students don’t get proper nutrition at school and parents spend their money to buy food and prepare their kids’ lunches.       

The first reason why schools should give free lunches and make them more nutritious is that according to the article, “Free School Meals Are a Major Win for Moms”, California and Maine’s schools are giving away free school “lunches to help boost children’s nutritional intake, decrease food insecurity, reduce the stigma of poverty, address racial inequalities and improve children’s educational outcomes” (Singh 2). The second reason is parents' time to buy ingredients for food and time spent making their children’s lunches. According to the same article, “Moms spend, on average, triple the time dads do preparing meals every day: 68 minutes vs. 23 minutes. Moms do most of the visible labor-grocery shopping, fridge restocking, cooking, cleaning up as well as the invisible: planning meals, navigating allergies, worrying about children's diets” (Singh 1). Because schools are making lunches free and more nutritious, parents, mainly moms,                                find it as a major win. The third reason is that the article “Free School Meals Are a Major Win for Moms”, states that in 2010, the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act updated school-meal nutrition standards to align with the national Dietary Guidelines for Americans, but there remains significant room for improvement. Because of California and Maine’s universal school meal program, the rest of the country follows its national and permanent program. The program has long been written off as too costly and unrealistic. By the 2022-2023 school year, California will invest $650 million in ongoing funds to continue its school meal program, and Maine will devote at least $10 million” (Singh 1). This shows that the free school meals program is necessary for all children and making them more nutritious is required.

In conclusion, it is the school’s responsibility to provide a nutritious lunch to school children. Furthermore, lunches at school are the key to having students gain energy, but without nutrition, students can’t “fuel themselves” and can’t focus on their studies. It is the school’s responsibility because there are families who live in poverty and can’t afford to buy ingredients to make their kid's lunches and they can’t afford the school lunch.