A Summary of a Scholarly Article

Niaki et al. investigated whether there was a disparity between the way students in lower grade levels and those in higher grade levels consumed their lunch given food in their article. According to them, the National School Lunch Program is in charge of serving over 31 million students per day. However, there has been a rise in food waste in recent years, raising questions about the expense and health benefits students receive from the initiative. The authors argue that Children may not receive nutritional benefits from lunch meals if they do not eat the food served._x0094_ (95).

To understand the phenomena, Niaki, et al. organized a cross-sectional study where the students where anonymously observed and their eating parents were recorded. The subjects of the survey included eight elementary schools that enroll students from kindergarten level to the fifth grade in Huston, Texas. The results confirmed the hypothesis that students from lower grades consumed less food and wasted more food as compared to their counterparts in higher grades (97).

Although the study provides an insightful view on the status of lunch food consumption I government sponsored elementary schools, using observation only did not provide the researcher with a comprehensive look at the problem. The study would have produced better results if it utilized methods such as the quarter-waste, half-waste, and photograph methods as recommended by Hanks, et al. (472). Additionally, the study should have had a wider outlook of the problem rather than being limited to elementary schools in Huston Texas alone which does not represent the national trend.

Works cited

Hanks, Andrew, S. et al. _x0093_Reliability And Accuracy Of Real-Time Visualization Techniques For Measuring School Cafeteria Tray Waste: Validating The Quarter-Waste Method._x0094_ Journal Of Academy Nutrition Diet, vol 2014, no. 114, 2013, pp. 470-474.

Niaki, Shahrbanou et al. _x0093_Younger Elementary School Students Waste More School Lunch Foods That Older Elementary School Students._x0094_ Journal of Academy Nutrition Diet, vol 2017, no. 117, 2016, pp. 95-101.