Public schools: Cafeteria or classroom?

Last Thursday, the Departments of Agriculture and Education, joined by educators, parents’ groups, and vendors, hosted a “virtual pep rally” to highlight steps made by the Biden Administration to support school meals and nutrition. Recent changes updated nutrition standards for K-12 schools that include more protein-rich foods such as yogurt, tofu, eggs, nuts, and seeds and fewer sugary foods. The standards also support vegetarian diets and the ability to source foods locally.

During the call, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack commented, “USDA is fully committed to setting kids up for success, and this rally gives us the opportunity to come together and encourage one another to raise the bar for school meals in this new school year and beyond.”

U.S. school cafeterias began appearing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily in response to concerns over student health and nutrition. The push for school cafeterias gained momentum during the 1930s with the Great Depression when federal assistance helped establish school lunch programs to feed malnourished children. The National School Lunch Act of 1946 further institutionalized cafeterias in schools nationwide, ensuring that affordable or free meals became a standard feature in U.S. public schools.

Public schools began experimenting with school breakfast programs in the mid-20th century. The first large-scale school breakfast pilot program started in 1966 under the Child Nutrition Act, which aimed to provide nutritious meals to children from low-income families, particularly in rural and urban areas. The Black Panthers then began their “Free Breakfast for School Children” program in 1969. The Oakland, California, program was a privately funded initiative to provide free, nutritious breakfasts to children before school, ensuring that students could focus on learning instead of being distracted by hunger.

The program quickly expanded to other cities across the U.S. and served thousands of children daily, raising awareness about food insecurity and its impact on education and health. The program’s success also put pressure on government officials to address the needs of impoverished students, influencing federal policies on school meal programs.

By 1975, providing breakfast in schools was recognized as a way to improve students’ ability to concentrate and perform better academically, and lunch programs have since become galvanized.

Now, a half-century later, students in U.S. Public Schools often consume a significant portion of their daily nutrition through school-provided meals. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), school lunches alone generally provide about one-third of participating students’ daily caloric intake. For students who eat both breakfast and lunch at school, school meals can account for up to 50-60% of their daily sustenance. With approximately 15% of the US population enrolled in public schools, the math leads us to a sprawling government program funded by substantial public investment.

Efforts to provide healthier food choices in schools should be applauded. Continuing to feed kids foods that are unsafe or unhealthy knowingly could only be described as a dereliction of duty. Exacting those standards from the lowest bidding vendor, a.k.a. “school meal partner organizations,” is unquestioningly a daunting task.

Those issues considered, shouldn’t we stop and ask ourselves if schools should be in the restaurant business? In a world where airlines now charge for baggage and students pay to participate in extracurricular activities, should we not consider limiting the public’s role in personal nutrition? Perhaps we can spend fewer resources on the food pyramid and devote more attention to the pyramids at Chichén Itzá and Giza. It’s tempting, but school lunches are also a chip in the back-room, horsetrading behind the farm bill–a piece of legislation on which the fortunes of our local economy rely.