Let’s feed kids instead of pointing fingers

Everything we want for our young people starts with nutritious food. It’s what they need to show up to school ready to learn. It’s what they need to grow up healthy and strong. Yet many families struggle to afford three quality meals per day, and far too often, it’s a source of embarrassment and shame. I’ve seen too many news stories about families being targeted and even threatened legally over school lunch bills. That makes me angry.

Like many cities, Boston is full of working families trying to build a better life for their kids. And our schools serve some of the lowest-income and highest-need students in our region. Here, too, parents sometimes find themselves choosing between paying the bills and serving their kids a fresh meal. But we’re not pointing the finger at parents who are having a hard time. We know how hard they work and how much they love their kids. We’re just focused on getting our students the nutrition they need.

That’s why we provide free lunch and free breakfast to all public school students, every day. It’s why we offer free meals at libraries, parks, summer camps and other neighborhood sites all summer long. And it’s why we’ve launched creative programs that help families stretch their dollars and their benefits further at grocery stores and farmer’s markets.

Right now we’re in the middle of our next big effort to not only improve kids’ access to food, but to also improve the quality and freshness of the food they’re eating. It’s a groundbreaking new program that we launched in partnership with the Shah Family Foundation called My Way Cafe. We’re building and upgrading school kitchens all over the City, so more schools can cook their own fresh food onsite. We serve food in a “deconstructed model,” like you would see at a Chipotle or a Sweetgreen fast casual restaurant. We also offer grab-and-go salads and sandwiches for high schoolers. Students choose exactly what they want and build their own meals from an array of healthy options.

My Way Cafe is a creative solution to a challenge that many American cities know all too well: outdated school buildings. Most of Boston’s public schools were built before World War II, when it was common for students to walk home for lunch. Because of that, many were built without kitchens, and they’ve had to rely on pre-packaged meals prepared offsite. We’re in the midst of a billion dollar, 10-year project to bring all our schools into the 21st century. But in the meantime, My Way Cafe is a cost-efficient way to get more school kitchens up and running now.

My Way Cafe started as a pilot program in four schools. Last year, we expanded it to 29, and now we’re investing millions more to include a total of nearly 60 of the highest-need public schools in the city. We’ve significantly increased the number of mealtime staff, creating new local jobs in these neighborhoods, as well.

The program is still young, but already we’re hearing outstanding feedback from students and families. The main message we’re hearing is simple: the food is fresher, healthier, and tastes better. It reflects students’ cultural backgrounds, so they’re eating more of it, wasting less of it, and returning to class better-fed and more ready to learn. Since we launched My Way Cafe, participation in our meal programs has increased by 15 percent.

My Way Cafe also provides students with valuable learning opportunities. Most of the food is sourced from American farms, and it’s cooked as close to the students as possible. They’re learning about our food systems, and what constitutes a balanced diet. Some teachers have incorporated My Way Cafe into their STEM and environmental curriculums. It’s helping students draw connections between their actions and the world around them.

My Way Cafe supports the promise of public education. Our public schools should be places where every child can truly thrive, no matter where they started out or how much money their family has. They should be one of our country’s greatest equalizers, giving all our students the tools they need to start building their own American dream. I’m proud of what we’re doing, and I’m grateful to strong partners like the Shah Family Foundation, for seeing the vital importance of this work.

Boston is creating a playbook that other cities can use to replicate the My Way Cafe model in their communities. By working together and getting creative, we can stop pointing fingers, and focus on feeding children with the nutritious food they deserve.

Learn more about Boston Public School meals here: https://www.bostonpublicschools.org/Page/7811