While government intervention may be somewhat effective, what is the cost? I don't want to see my tax dollars go up because parents decide not to feed their children healthy food. School lunch and fast food are not the only options. My parents have made the right decision about feeding me and it's not too hard, not to mention cheaper, at least than school lunch. Ever since I first started kindergarten, my mom has made my lunch for me and my three siblings. Lunch was about $1.25 in elementary school, so feeding four kids five times a week with school food would be at least $25. Instead, a loaf of bread with various different cold cuts and/or peanut butter and jelly would be well under $20, and a case of water bottles would last at least two weeks. Now move up to high school; the school lunches cost $2.50 with snacks and drinks no less than $1 each. Four kids would cost $50 a week, before snacks and drinks. Cold cuts should be less than $20 a week, bread and water bottles is less than $10 and snacks like crackers, fruit, veggies or pretzels would still be around $10-$20. This would still be cheaper than unhealthy school food and it includes water, which is imperative for people, along with a healthy snack every day. If sandwiches get boring, students can bring a salad or maybe cold left overs from dinner the previous night. This solution seems so obvious, so why doesn't everyone do it? Laziness. Parents don't want to spend 10 minutes the night before preparing lunch for their children if they can just give them money in the morning for food. I've seen it with my friends and have tried to convince them of this logic but laziness gets in the way. Why not take the easy way out? The cost and health difference may seem minute if you look at it one day at a time, but take a whole school year and see how much you can save on money, calories and fat. So how can we promote this across America? This is a tricky decision because our government wants kids to buy lunch from public schools in order to generate revenue, so it is unlikely that the government will promote bringing a bagged lunch to schools. I think health class should be taught throughout all of grade school and maybe guest speakers can come in and give speeches about the importance and health benefits of bringing your lunch and can give handouts for the parents to look at. Overall, the decisions lay in the hands of the parents. Parents are role models for students and if they eat healthy and prepare healthy lunches, students are more likely to eat healthy throughout their lives; I know this from personal experience and trust me it works. My mom tells me how much we save a year and how much healthier bringing lunch is and from the money we save with this, along with saving in other ways, we are able to spend more on nice vacations and private college tuitions. Lastly, I do not think increasing government taxes will do much. Taxes are not supposed to be used as a punishment, we established that after the revolutionary war. We should have the freedom to choose what to eat without being punished by our government. How is that a free country? I don't agree with eating fast food often, but the government is not set up to tell us what to eat and punish us for making unhealthy decisions. Awareness should be spread and laziness needs to be abolished.