Time for Lunch – A Campaign to bring Real Food to Schools

In the last few decades, as school budgets have been cut, our country’s schools have struggled to serve children the real food they need. Schools receive reimbursements for each meal served, but they are woefully low. Schools often need to depend on low-cost or free supplies of highly processed surplus products from the industrial food system, which offer little in the way of freshness, taste, or real nourishment. These conditions make it impossible for even the most resourceful, well-intentioned school food directors to consistently serve food that is healthy, delicious and locally sourced.

The need for real school food has never been greater. Today, one in four children is overweight or obese, and one in three will develop diabetes in his or her lifetime. For many children, school lunch is their only guaranteed meal of the day. Right now, those children are forced to choose between going hungry and being unhealthy. The National School Lunch Program provides a meal to more than 30 million children every school day. By giving schools the resources to serve real food, we can grant 30 million children the freedom to be healthy. By teaching children to eat well, we can make a down payment on health care reform.

Many notable authors and leaders in the slow food movement are supporting this important campaign:

Michael Pollan
Author, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto

Changing the way American grows its food and eats will be a big and long-term job, but without a doubt the best way to start is by reforming school lunch. No other point of leverage could do quite as much to improve the health of our children and, if schools are encouraged to source food locally, the health of local farming. “

Marion Nestle, PhD
Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies,
and Public Health
New York University, Steinhart School

School lunch isn’t just about the food. It’s also about what food means in culture and communities. A good school lunch program teaches kids that food matters—how it’s produced, what gets done with it, and how it is consumed. These are important lessons that ought to be in every curriculum. “

Zenobia Barlow
Co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for Ecoliteracy

“Getting real food in schools is a triple-winning strategy. Fresh, healthy food benefits children’s health, their academic performance, and the environment. It also opens up an exciting new doorway to schooling for sustainability. The Center for Ecoliteracy applauds Slow Food USA’s Time for Lunch campaign.”