Processed foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt are a significant part of school lunches.

Experts say that school lunches are contributing to why many children in the United States are obese.

School lunches at Liberty offer many healthy options, but part of the problem is the students don’t take advantage of the healthy choices that the school has to offer.

On top of getting their meal, many students get a la carte options – fries, pretzels or anything else that is offered.

“I wish there were more options for our school lunch, such as white bread instead of just whole whole grain bread,” said Deborah Boswell.

However, many obstacles are in the way as to why school lunches can’t be healthy. Getting the healthy food is very expensive.

When you’re working with a big school system, where one student who only pays a couple dollars per lunch, it does not cover the cost it would take to get the healthy food.

Another obstacle some schools have are the contracts to food management companies.

Liberty’ food is regulated through state guidelines by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Liberty gets inspections yearly but the schools are chosen at random so no preparation can take place.

Freshman Chloe Hunter is sick and tired of the same school lunches that she has everyday.

“I’m tired of the same old lunches that we have everyday, we need something new to eat and to change it up” Hunter said.

Some changes are slowly happening to the lunches at school.

Clubs at some schools are growing gardens and then serving what is grown, as part of a student’s lunch. This hopefully will improve the types of fruit and vegetables schools get.

Students  also are learning how to grow and take care of garden’s with this new program, that a handful of schools are offering.

Another impact the unhealthy lunches have is that it impacts student’s academic performance.

When people keep themselves well nourished, they are able to concentrate more and perform better on tests.