School Lunch News That You Could Use
We’re always keeping up with news stories and articles surrounding school lunches. Every couple of weeks we’ll do the heavy reading and round up our favorite stories for you to get quick information about school lunch news. Here are this week’s stories that we find especially interesting and think you will too.
Longer lunchtimes lead to better choices
While fruits and vegetables might not be the first thing children go for during lunchtime, recent research from the University of Illinois found that children with longer lunchtimes ate significantly more fruits and vegetables than children with shorter lunch periods. Professor Melissa Prescott details that her “findings support policies that require at least 20 minutes of seated lunch time at school”.
California launches largest free lunch program
This fall, all students in California have the option to eat free school meals all year long. California is the first state to use a universal school lunch program that benefits 6.2 million children, regardless of family income. Senator Nancy Skinner highlights the importance of nutrition for learning when stating, “If you’re a hungry child, you’re not going to learn well”.
Nutrition security + what it means
Many health professionals and policymakers are urging people to focus on the term “nutrition security” instead of “food security” because according to the Washington Post, “that term emphasizes access, availability and affordability of foods that promote well-being and prevent or treat disease, not just foods that provide calories”. Many are calling this change urgent because of the number of people dealing with food and nutrition insecurity post-pandemic. Even though many programs work to provide food to those in need, nutrition is often not a priority. Health advisors point this out in many school breakfast programs where children are fed sugary and processed foods.
In New York, legislation that stops school districts from filing lawsuits against parents or guardians for unpaid school lunch debts is being considered. This comes after New York agreed to stop meal-shaming families who could not pay school lunch debts in 2018. Assemblywoman Karines Reyes, who has seen many lawsuits about this issue after 2018, states, “ I just find it ironic that we talk about not paying for food and getting free stuff when we have a lounge a few feet away from here that provides an endless amount of snacks that we don’t have to pay for and we are talking about children who sometimes, the only meal they’ve got is in school”.
While a lot has changed in schools over the past few years, let alone months, school lunch has remained relatively untouched. In school cafeterias, you can still find crinkle-cut fries, cartons of milk, and other cafeteria foods from when your parents were in school. While the goal of school lunch is to nourish children and that has not changed over the years, they have consistently not met that goal. Even with produce becoming more frequent, there are still the menu mainstays from 60 years ago today. To break this school lunch cycle, Yay Lunch was born to provide children with fresh + nutritious school lunches that are also hassle-free for parents.
