We have all experienced the excitement that has erupted when the school-lunch bell rang, and we finally got to go enjoy lunch. Fortunately, after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are finally back in school with the ability to eat lunch with friends again. 

 Lunches are a staple of the school day, a time where students can decompress from their busy day and enjoy their food. But not every student gets to eat the same caliber of food at school. Some kids exclusively eat the lunches provided by the school, and depending on the type of food that is served, the lunches can be pretty scarce in nutrients and variety. 

This shouldn’t be the case because all children require adequate nourishment to grow and develop into healthy, thriving adults. 

Jessica Levinson,  registered dietitian with a focus on culinary nutrition and communications, expands on the importance of children eating suitable meals with a sufficient amount of nutrients: “Children need a variety of nutrients to support growth and development from infancy through adolescence and beyond. Underconsumption of certain nutrients can lead to deficiencies, which can lead to increased risk of disease and disruption of proper growth.” She continues on to say the overconsumption of sugars, sodium and saturated fats “can also lead to an increased risk of diseases.” Food plays an important role in the lives of all humans but especially in growing, developing children. 

School lunches, specifically, serve an array of purposes: they are imperative for the growth and development of children; they can impact their health; they lay the foundation for children’s relationships with food;  they are an essential source of food for children who are food insecure; and school lunches affect how well kids do in school, both academically and behaviorally. During the school year children spend the majority of their day at school, consuming a third or more of their calories there.  

The CDC recommends “that schools implement policies and practices to create a nutrition environment that supports students in making healthy choices.” The way to achieve that would be to provide students with nutritional, appealing foods and drinks, accompanied by educational support that reinforces healthy eating practices and furthers their understanding of what food is good for them and why. 

School lunches should “check 4 boxes on your plate”: healthy proteins, fiber-rich veggies, nutrient-dense carbs, and include sources of fat, according to Leah Cohen, registered dietitian, and nutritionist. Unfortunately, the quality and standards of school lunches aren’t ubiquitous throughout the United States.

The History On School Lunches

The government has been enacting policies on school lunches since before the 1950s. The National School Lunch Program began in 1946 when Harry S. Truman signed the NSLP Act. The main motive that compelled Truman to sign the NSLP act was a significant number of American men drafted for World War II were rejected for malnutrition and other diet-related issues. In more recent years, under the Obama administration, changes were finally being made to increase the quality and nutritional value of the school lunches provided to kids, acknowledging the importance these meals have in the lives of children who are a part of low-income families. However, under President Trump’s administration, rollbacks loosened the standards of the number of grains and vegetables that are required to be incorporated in school lunches. Primarily affecting children from low-income families who depend on school lunches to serve as their main source of nutrition. 

A number of kids are dependent on the lunches provided by schools because their families are financially unstable and don’t have the means nor the time to pack and send them with alternative lunches. Other kids may be able to afford to bring their own lunches or even have families advocate through what Marshall mentioned as “local participation, parent involvement and lobbying” to improve the quality of their school lunches. However, that is not the case for all. 

“For lots of people, because we have cut funding for school lunch we provide mostly processed foods including frozen pizzas, frozen chicken nuggets, and vegetables that don’t get eaten. And we know if that is the only source of food that some people are getting all day, and they are living below the poverty line then they are really just getting this cheap processed food that is contributing to obesity and metabolic disease,” says Kristen Brown, biology and health teacher at the NYC iSchool. Some kids may depend on school lunches but aren’t able to afford to pay for them, so they qualify for free and reduced lunches. Qualifying for free and reduced lunches indicates that they are likely experiencing “financial instability or vulnerability,” says Peter Mulroy, science teacher at the NYC iSchool. 

With rollbacks on the types of food incorporated into school meals, children who rely more heavily on them will be affected more negatively than kids who may have access to better food at home. These socioeconomic differences increase the disparity in lunches for rich and poor children. Children from low-income families may not only be food insecure at home but now also facing adversity at school when it comes to eating a nutritionally balanced meal.

How has COVID-19 Worsened An Already Dire Situation?

The COVID-19 pandemic has eclipsed and worsened the inequality of school lunches for students of different social classes. The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for many people because of losses of jobs and the deaths of family and friends. Not only has this pandemic created a difficult environment at home, but now it is also impeding school lunches and straining the accessibility of food. 

With COVID-19 on the rise again, and variants constantly being uncovered that spread like wildfire, there are labor shortages that have impacted food distributors and manufacturers. “I’ve never seen the supply chain in this much chaos, and I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” says Michael Rosenberger, the executive director for food and child nutrition services in Dallas.  

“The goal was to give food to poor people. Now the goal is to get food to poor people that is of substance and quality, ” says Marshall Matz Chairman and Government Relations Practice Head at Olsson Frank Weeda who has devoted his entire career to domestic and global food security. Providing food to low-income families may have been the direction that food programs were heading in, but because of the pandemic, we are reverting to our previous aim of simply feeding people who can’t afford to feed themselves. Jenna Knuth, the director of food and nutrition at North Kansas City Schools in Missouri, said, “We’re bringing in whatever food we can.” School officials in Missouri City say they had run out of vegetables for a couple of days and were stocking up on frozen pizzas, hot dogs, and grilled cheeses. This havoc isn’t limited to one state. Schools across the country are facing shortages in the cafeteria as supply chains plummet, and the lack of truck drivers surge, further complicating the responsibility of feeding children. According to the School Nutrition Association, “97% are concerned about continued pandemic supply chain disruptions, with 65% citing this as a serious concern.”

The Department of Agriculture offered some relief by issuing waivers allowing schools to provide food that may not meet the nutritional requirements because of the toll COVID-19 has taken on supply chains. 

According to Bettina Elias Siegel, author and children’s food advocate, “millions of kids rely on school meals as their primary daily nutrition.” With the Department of Agriculture being laxer on what is provided to students, coupled with schools stocking up on processed foods, it is concerning how this will impact their health. 

Brown explains the harm in the over-consumption of processed foods: “A lot of processed foods are filled with corn, corn syrup, and soy which makes it really high in sugar and we know that the overconsumption of sugar can lead to metabolic disease and obesity.” 

School Lunches Role in the Obesity Crisis:

According to the CDC 19.3% of children, ages 2-19, are obese in America meaning 14.4 million children and adolescents are affected by obesity. The consumption of foods with lots of nutritional value is not only ideal, but imperative to the development and health of children and adolescents. 

“Establishing healthy eating behaviors early in life is an important health promotion goal with long-lasting impacts,” says Jamie Bussel, Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Childhood Obesity lead. 

As children are developing, they are setting up behaviors and habits they will most likely carry through adulthood, including eating habits and food associations. Bustle continues on to say eating healthy, and developing good eating habits can factor into “overall health, and the prevention of obesity and other lifelong, diet-related chronic diseases.” Obesity can have lasting, detrimental effects that can shorten life spans so steps need to be taken to reduce the prevalence of obesity, especially amongst children and adolescents. 

Although obesity is prevalent worldwide, there are disproportionately higher levels of obesity in the United States than in most countries. There are a myriad of ways other countries have prevented or lowered rates of obesity, but one way that has proved effective is providing healthy school lunches. 

Japan responded to the rise in obesity amongst children by addressing it in school lunches: “Japanese school lunches tend to be planned by a nutritionist, include locally grown and fresh ingredients and tend to be dominated by rice, vegetables, soups and fish.” While in America there is a theme of processed, sugary foods, in school lunches. 

If that were to change, it would make a substantial difference for a lot of children because “30 million children receive school lunch daily” and “healthier lunches could make a profound dent in the nation’s obesity rate.” 

There is a lack of access to organic, nutritional foods in the United States. The ability to consume healthy foods shouldn’t be a classist, lavish expenditure. And while there is no perfect remedy that will rid obesity entirely, Bussel emphasizes the effective role school lunches can play: “school meals are an important part of a comprehensive, holistic approach. School meals can play an integral role in improving children’s diets and addressing health disparities.” If nutritional, well-balanced school lunches were omnipresent throughout the country, it would be a huge step in the right direction for both the obesity crisis and food-insecurity crisis. 

Solutions

School lunches play a part in bigger issues that are “complex and integrated,” Ly Dang, history teacher at the NYC iSchool, said. She continued on saying,  “Introducing foods that have been historically and systemically not been offered to everyone will help a little,” but it will require a much more compounded solution to address this complex issue. 

There are some programs and systems in place that are attempting to reform our food systems. On a larger scale, the Food Systems Summit is trying to transfer the food systems by 2030 to combat hunger and food waste, and create a more sustainable and equitable food system, which will benefit a larger group and variety of people. The summit is joining forces with “key players from the worlds of science, business, policy, healthcare, and academia, as well as indigenous people, youth organizations, consumer groups, environmental activists, and other key stakeholders.” The goal is to try and ameliorate this entire problem and its various components. 

Locally, there are programs that educate students in a more hands-on fashion like the Edible Schoolyard NYC. Liza Engelberg, director of the program and education for Edible Schoolyard NYC, says, “Their purpose is to partner with public schools and provide a more hands-on education on cooking and gardening to further children’s relationships with food.” Having children garden, grow, and cook their own foods encourages them to try new things and eat their fruits and vegetables. The benefits of teaching kids about where their food comes from, how to cook it, and what kinds of foods to seek out will set the groundwork for them to understand the gravity of food. Hopefully, this kind of education will inspire kids to possibly pursue a more extensive education on food and possibly even careers in these fields. A way to make these types of programs more universal is to establish roles in schools where registered dietitians and nutritionists can continue educating kids throughout the year and even consult with families. 

School lunches are just one piece of a much bigger puzzle. School lunches, alone, will not rid food insecurity or prevent obesity, but the act of providing healthy nutritious food to all children in school throughout the United States will be moving us in the right direction. School is the beginning of children’s lives, a place where they gain independence from their parents and are given opportunities to learn and try new things. Children whose families cannot afford to provide them with healthy nutritional foods require another way to reach it, and schools can be that source of education and access. 

Through the school system, kids can consistently eat healthy foods and be taught lessons on why these foods are good for them and how to replicate them at home with families. The CDC elucidates how schools can fill important roles in children’s lives when it comes to their health,  “Schools play a critical role in promoting the health and safety of young people and helping them establish lifelong healthy behaviors.” Children are our future generation, we need to strive to provide them with all the tools they need to go out into the world and succeed on their own. By giving them access to these types of foods and associating it with health and nutrition, it is laying their foundation for adulthood.