The right to taste: Conceptualizing the nourishing potential of school lunch

ABSTRACT

The National School Lunch Program (NLSP) draws on federal poverty guidelines to distribute free, reduced, and full price meals to students throughout the United States. The NSLP aims to provide nutritious meals to students in need, and in 2014, the Community Eligibility Provision expanded food entitlements, allowing high poverty districts to serve all meals free. This study analyzes pilot ethnographic research conducted in an urban elementary school and draws on three dimensions of nourishment to consider the impact of school meals. Failure to understand how the filling, invigorating, and gratifying dimensions of nourishment engage and contradict one another diminishes the overall impact of school food entitlements. Drawing on the NSLP “offer vs serve” model, this article presents the right to taste as a conceptual platform for obtaining all dimensions of nourishment.

KEYWORDS:

• nourishment
• right to food
• taste
• National School Lunch Program
• school meals

Notes

1. Students must select at least three food components, one of which must be a fruit or vegetable, from the five food components offered (meat/meat alternative, whole grain, fruit, vegetable, liquid dairy).

2. See 2012 Final Rule on Nutrition Standards in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-01-26/pdf/2012-1010.pdf. The National School Lunch and Breakfast programs only enforce sugar limits on foods (e.g. breakfast cereals and yogurt) served to Pre-K programs. Snack foods sold in the school during the school day, such as vending machine foods and other competitive foods, must meet “Smart Snack” guidelines, which includes: less than or equal to “35% ceiling of weight from total sugars in foods.” (Smart Snacks in School: USDA's “All Foods Sold in Schools” Standards https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/cn/allfoods-flyer.pdf)

3. This is a major limitation of this pilot study. Stakeholders often referred to other teachers, staff, or administrators that did not exhibit a commitment to student well being, as evidenced by their willingness to allow and/or give students junk food.