Solutions Across the Country

As we continue to conduct research and fieldwork, I have been reading about ways that school districts throughout the country have attempted to solve the issue of unhealthy school lunch as a branch of food insecurity.

In 2005, Abernethy Elementary School in Portland, Oregon, partnered with EcoTrust's Farm to School Program (different from Farm to School, which I previously wrote about) and embarked on a semester-long experiment to serve more sustainably produced and healthier lunches. The school purchased locally grown produce and all meals were prepared on site. Remarkably, the food overall actually cost less than the previously served frozen meals, though the cost of labor increased, as a second chef was needed. This school is a great success story for us, since it had a tight budget and could not raise the price of lunch, as 43% of students in the district are eligible for subsidized meals.

In Washington, a Local Farms-Healthy Kids bill "lifted barriers" that had restricted local farms from providing produce to schools. The Auburn School District created a school garden system modeled on Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, California. Challenges that the Auburn schools faced in implementing these changes was the extra labor required to establish and maintain relationships with local farms. Eric Boutin, Auburn's child nutrition services director, remarked that the "key" is getting "delivery companies to source and promote local food products" so that the schools are not struggling with "distribution/contact/invoicing problems".

The USDA Food and Nutrition Services sponsors a "HealthierUS School Challenge" which grants financial rewards to schools that "promote nutrition and physical activity" and apply for a medal. A gold winner was the Dr. Albert F. Argenziano School at Lincoln Park in Somerville, Massachusetts. An article in the Boston Globe described the change. The school now serves fresh, rather than canned vegetables, and like the school on Portland, a large percentage (over half) of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunches. The article mentions that the school hit the $25,000 state cap for buying local food, and the School Committee chose to "allocate extra funds".

As we begin to think about possible solutions, cost is going to be a major consideration. These schools had to spend more money on lunches, whether for the local produce or the necessary labor.