"A number of factors can influence children’s eating habits and attitudes toward food. Family environment, societal trends, taste preferences, and messages in the media all impact the emotions that children develop in relation to their diet. Television commercials can entice children to consume sugary products, fatty fast-foods, excess calories, refined ingredients, and sodium. Therefore, it is critical that parents and caregivers direct children toward healthy choices. One way to encourage children to eat healthy foods is to make meal- and snack-time fun and interesting. Parents should include children in food planning and preparation, for example selecting items while grocery shopping or helping to prepare part of a meal, such as making a salad. At this time, parents can also educate children about kitchen safety. It might be helpful to cut sandwiches, meats, or pancakes into small or interesting shapes. In addition, parents should offer nutritious desserts, such as fresh fruits, instead of calorie-laden cookies, cakes, salty snacks, and ice cream. Also, studies show that children who eat family meals on a frequent basis consume more nutritious foods. Malnutrition is a problem many children face, in both developing nations and the developed world. Even with the wealth of food in North America, many children grow up malnourished, or even hungry. The US Census Bureau characterizes households into the following groups: food secure; food insecure without hunger; food insecure with moderate hunger; and food insecure with severe hunger. Millions of children grow up in food-insecure households with inadequate diets due to both the amount of available food and the quality of food. In the United States, about 20 percent of households with children are food insecure to some degree. In half of those, only adults experience food insecurity, while in the other half both adults and children are considered to be food insecure, which means that children did not have access to adequate, nutritious meals at times. Growing up in a food-insecure household can lead to a number of problems. Deficiencies in iron, zinc, protein, and vitamin A can result in stunted growth, illness, and limited development. Federal programs, such as the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and Summer Feeding Programs, work to address the risk of hunger and malnutrition in school-aged children. They help to fill the gaps and provide children living in food-insecure households with greater access to nutritious meals. Beginning with preschool, children consume at least one of their meals in a school setting. Many children receive both breakfast and lunch outside of the home. Therefore, it is important for schools to provide meals that are nutritionally sound. The National School Lunch Program offers low-cost or free lunches to schools, and also snacks to after-school facilities. School lunches must meet the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and need to provide one-third of the RDAs for protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, and calcium. However, local authorities make the decisions about what foods to serve and how they are prepared."