Are 25-minute School Lunches Healthy?

Many activities are packed into a child's school day: approximately six classes; lunch; transition time between classes; and sometimes breakfast, homeroom, recess or special gatherings. Many school days are approximately six to seven hours long and, out of necessity, lunch periods are shortened to around 25 minutes. You may be concerned whether your child has adequate time to eat a healthy lunch in this time frame.

Time Required to Eat Lunch

The National Food Service Management Institute sponsored three studies to determine the amount of time students spend eating lunch, with the study results reported in "The Journal of Child Nutrition & Management" in 2002. Lead author Martha T. Conklin, Ph.D., R.D., reported that, among students in grades kindergarten through 12th grade, the subjects spent on average 7 to 10 minutes actually eating their food.

Time for Lunch-Related Activities

Eating is just one activity performed in the cafeteria. Students must go through the cafeteria line and return their trays for clean up. In the above-mentioned studies, students needed from 2.5 to 8.1 minutes to go through the cafeteria line and less than one minute to take their trays for clean up. The remainder of student time in the cafeteria was spent socializing. In conclusion, students needed a total of up to 19.1 minutes to purchase their food, consume it and return their trays, so a 25-minute lunch period should be adequate for these activities plus a minimal amount of socializing.

Components of a Healthy Lunch

The components of a school lunch are arguably more important to health than the amount of time allotted to eat. The U.S. Department of Agriculture implemented changes to the school lunch program early in 2011 in an attempt to increase students' intake of fruits, vegetables and whole grains while reducing saturated fat and overall calories. A typical school lunch today consists of a protein food such as meat, at least one vegetable, fruit, a roll and skim milk.

Ways to Improve Your Child's School Lunch

Encourage your child to choose healthy food options at school. Ask him if he has enough time to eat his meal, and if he states that he doesn't, try to find ways that he can streamline the lunch process. If the allotted time is still too short, discuss the issue with the school principal or parent organization. If you learn that your child isn't eating a nutritious lunch at school, consider packing his lunch each day instead.