Compared to other schools, the Altoona Area Junior High School has a variety of options when it comes to lunch. In elementary school students only had the choice of two meals. Now that we are in junior high, there is a lot more to choose from.

Although, some parents of the students might have their own opinions on portion sizes, the cafeteria has limited the proportions to help with child obesity. The first lady tries to help this situation by going to schools. She talks to the students to try to convince them that by eating healthy foods, they will be providing better opportunities for their bodies to be in shape.

“The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more,” first lady Michelle Obama said.

To begin, in the cafeteria, students have many options to fulfill their hunger. The cafeteria offers two main entrees, which normally consist of a type of meat and vegetable. Then if some of the students choose to be vegetarians, they have the option to go to the salad bar. For pizza lovers, the school has provided multiple different types of pizza. Another healthy choice in the cafeteria is the sandwich wraps.

Recently, for the 2012-2013 school year, the size of our flatbreads, soft pretzels and milk cartons have decreased. Some of the decreasing in the sizes can be positive and negative in the student’s life. For example, if they are too big, it will cause a student to eat an excessive number of calories. On the other hand, if they are simply too small, that in particular child will be hungry by their next class period.

To conclude, there are healthy and unhealthy choices in our cafeteria to consume. Although there are unhealthy options to eat, the school tries their best to keep the students active by providing extra curricular activities such as after school kickball and having the workout room open on certain days.