2nd Guest post from LUKAS!!!

Lukas sent me over another guest post this week, I hope you enjoy reading it!

Hello again,
In the past few weeks I have noticed an increased popularity on the subject of which we are fighting for, school lunches. Many of those fighting are farmers, they understand the importance of a healthy meal, not to mention the fact that what they raise is being used to feed our youth.  Do you think that Mr. Obama is eating 800 calories per meal? My guess is definitely not. One carton of 2% white milk is equal to 100 calories and has 8 fluid ounces of content. A handful of the students at my high school are just getting out of Physical Fitness and are not only hungry, but also thirsty. If you drink 16 ounces of milk you already have 200 calories of your lunch which is equivalent to ¼ of your meal. One baby carrot supplies you with just 5 calories.

On this lunch plate there are 7 carrots shown, with 35 calories for the total. The average sized muffin resting there on my plate has 180 calories, I honestly think my mouth is big enough that I ate it in one bite. The cup of pineapple on my plate has nearly 50 calories, but there interesting part is the potatoes. Now as I’ve said before I have been on a farm all of my life, and I’ll tell you this; we LOVE our mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, buttered bread, and roast lunch! After we eat, we head out the door to continue working in the 100⁰ heat, or the freezing cold snow, and I am yet to gain a pound. But isn’t the main point of being a student, to get an education? How are we supposed to focus with the bare minimum amount of fuel sitting in our tanks? None the less, this portion of mashed potatoes and gravy is packed with 400 calories. Let’s add all this up.



Milk:100
Pineapple:50
Carrots:35
Muffin:180
Main Course:400









That equals up to a grand total of, 765 calories! I know that on an average practice of 45 minutes I burn 700 calories. That doesn’t include the calories I burn trying to recover, which continues to add up all day long. An teenage boy, who DOES NOT play sports is supposed to attain 3,000 calories per day. If practice is at 6:30 a.m. I burn over 1,500 by 9 o’clock! These meals are outrageous! In the next few days I will be contacting a Senate Representative and a man who writes articles in the High Plains Journal, to speak of this issue and way they could possibly help us win the battle. Until then, find a vending machine.

-Lukas

-----Be sure to give your answer in this weeks poll: Lunch Price, which ends Sunday. After that, I'll make sure to post the results!! Tomorrow, I will be meeting with the food service director at my school, so we can talk about the blog. Be on the look out for a post about that, and soon an interview with some of the people involved in the YouTube video We Are Hungry!!!-----

2nd Guest post...LUKAS! Friday, September 7th.

     Here is the first guest post from our second guest poster, Lukas!!  Lukas also attends school in a small rural Kansas community, and is quite the achieved distance runner!  He will probably be posting every two weeks or so, so be on the lookout for more!

     Hello Everyone! My name is Lukas; I attend a school much similar to Shane’s in aspect of size, and community. I live on a farm and understand the importance of healthy diets, which goes for animals and humans. But what is most special about me is my ability to run. I have loved running since grade school, and it has become a key part of my life. In the course of my high school career, I have brought home many titles and awards to my community. So from a true athlete’s perspective, we NEED more food! Like most pre-collegiate students I weigh under 200 lbs. Skin and bones, is probably the most accurate way to describe us. Now I am not saying that the food is gross, because I am by no means a picky eater, but the quantity is not rational at all. The statistics may say that the U.S. is overweight but where I come from we aren’t much more than bean stalks. This is a picture of the lunch that was served on Friday the 7th; I took every possible item of food that was possible.

• 1-Sloppy Joe
• 1-Bean Salsa with tortilla chips
• 1-leaf of Romaine 
• 2-1/2 slices of tomato
• 1 pear
• 1-cup of milk

     As you can see there is not a whole lot on my plate, the sloppy Joe was delicious, but that was the only meaty and filling part of the whole meal. Bean salsa? Come on, that is an appetizer. This lunch, however, was on Friday, and my cross country meet was on Thursday. The day after a race is known as a 'Recovery Day', which means you have to re-nourish all the vital elements your body lost during your race. The average runner (typical high school runner) needs more protein per pound of body weight than a professional body builder. There isn’t enough protein on this plate to recharge a 5^th grader after PE and recess. 

     We pay for these lunches, and I don’t believe that gives the government the right to restrict them. If the overweight people want to chow down on Honey Buns and Soda, who are we to judge them, Let alone stop them? It is their body and they can do to it as they please! We are adolescents, our metabolism is peaking. It’s possible to eat a little grub and still keep our low body fat. School lunches aren't the problem, and making them smaller will only encourage indulging in fatty foods after the bell rings. I hope to post again soon, but until then God Bless.

-Lukas

Thanks, Lukas!! 

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