One of My Projects at Harvard’s Food Law and Policy Clinic
One of the prime areas for change in the food system is the food in schools. School meals provide more than 50% of the daily calorie intake for many low-income children in the U.S. Fortunately, the past few years have brought great improvements in federal and state regulations governing the foods served in K-12 schools. However, these upgrades have led some schools and communities to the mistaken belief that the challenges in school food have been met.
School meals provide more than 50% of the daily calorie intake for many low-income children
In fact, the changing regulatory landscape presents many opportunities for making changes still necessary at the state and local level. In order to help those working with schools at the state and local level to better understand the ongoing need for change in this realm and to determine where to begin making it, the FLPC is preparing a toolkit recommending high-impact areas of intervention to improve access to quality food in schools, to encourage the
teaching of food literacy and awareness throughout schools, and to support the creation within schools of a just, healthful and sustainable food culture.
Support the creation within schools of a just, healthful and sustainable food culture
The toolkit will be published nationally to support states, school districts and individual activists by identifying policy advocacy action items, featuring examples of districts that have made changes worth imitating, and highlighting resources available to facilitate making such changes at the school or district level.
The FLPC is working on this project in partnership with Project Bread, a leading anti-hunger organization in Massachusetts focused on ending hunger by developing and scaling impactful food-access solutions. Project Bread has experience working closely with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, as well as school lunch programs across the Commonwealth, to increase daily access to and consumption of healthier school meals.