Advocacy Project: School Lunch Subsidies and Nutrition

Eye-Opener: School Lunch

Purpose: To gain a better undestanding of  political aspects of school lunch.

Background: The 2009 MN legestlator was debating bills that would increase the reimbursements to schools' lunches for low income students.

ANSWER: 
1. What was your school lunch like growing up?
2. Would you consider it as healthy?
3. Do you remember how it was paid for/ by whom?

Read
The following Legistlative Issue Paper written by the Minnesota School Nutrition Association. It summarizes the 2009 issues related to school lunches in Minnesota. This group clearly shows the gap between producing a school lunch and the revenue recieved, a problem that is causing many low-in-come students to not have access to as healthy school lunches.

Nutrition guidlines are mandated by both federal and state government, school lunches are a hot political topic. In an attempt to take some of the politics out of the issue, a group called The Healthy Schools Campaign, which is a independent non-profit organization, is here to help students, parents, and school leaders work to create change at the distric, state, and national level.
The following article in the Chicago Healthy Schools Campaign news letter explains ways to get children to eat healthier lunches, and stresses the importance of increasing funding for school lunch programs. Please read the news letter.

Watch
The following video explains the politics behind school lunch.
The Food Lobby Goes to School

Answer these questions as you watch the video: 
4. What are some obsticles that got in the way of providing American school children with healthy lunches. 

5. What health problems affect American children? Did this surprise you?

6. Consider what you have read and the video you have watched: What do you think is the #1 thing that you think can be done to improve school lunch?