Question

What is the author’s main purpose for writing this text?

to highlight the difference between the lunch menus in middle school and high school

to convey the plight of the food-service officials due to pressure from upper management

to illustrate the unhealthy choices offered to high school students to increase food sales

to examine in detail the different choices offered for lunch to high school students

Answer 1

Lunches in U.S. high schools are lacking adequate nutritional value. The menus have become increasingly varied over the past two decades, and they are varied to a fault. Now high school students can choose between healthy main dishes and "junk food" items offered á la carte on the school menu. Milkshakes and fries are often the lunch of choice for America's youth. Fourteen-year-old Alira Sanson from Grand Rapids, Michigan, admits, "I love my high school's menu. It is much better than middle school food. I eat a giant chocolate-chip cookie and a bag of chips for lunch every day—because I can." The middle school menu Alira refers to is the government-regulated hot lunch mandated in elementary and middle schools across the nation. Lunches at the high school level are often under site-based management, and food-service officials are under pressure to provide food that sells. This pressure renders unhealthy choices, and the resulting menus are detrimental to students.