School Lunch Program
It has always been a challenge to ensure that children are eating the proper foods when they eat school lunch or any other meal of the day. The proper balance has to be struck between providing foods that the students will like and actually eat and providing foods that are actually nutritious. Striking the balance in the wrong way leads to wasted food and resources in some instance. In other instance, it leads to nutritional goals not being met. School sales and fundraising is also an issue that must be address. While school lunches are not the most important thing in the world, they are very important when it comes to raising and educating the children of today and the adults and workforce of tomorrow.
Even with the challenges and issues that exist, there are many districts and groups that have tackled the challenge with fervor and vigor. There are often vast and expansive documents that detail the efforts and tactics that will be used to maximize nutrition and minimize waste. One such jurisdiction is Philadelphia. Their efforts go back nearly a century. As of 1920, though, the programs and plans in place were often referred to as “experimental”...
However, it would be a misnomer to say that the 1920’s was the start of such efforts, as they date back to Europe in the 1700’s. Even so, the late 1800’s was the start of such efforts in the United States. Beyond that, the aforementioned Smedley and the Philadelphia school system was one of the pioneers of such efforts in the United States. Back then, the monetary focus was more about saving money due to its obvious scarcity. Nowadays, there the confluence of school budget issues and fighting the prevalence of students (and their families) of eating somewhat to very poorly. As just indicated, a lot of exterior influence is wreaking havoc on whether children are eating healthy and whether money spent on healthier foods is being wasted (Open Campus 2017). It does help to have the USDA being an active partner. A good share of the food used nowadays is “gifted” to districts, although they are wont to considered them entitlements (School Food Focus). The depth and breadth of the foods offered via this commodity program are both quite large. Indeed, there are 180 different foods offered via the commodity program alone (RWJF 2008).
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