The Politics of School Lunch

Civics 101

NHPR

Society & Culture, Government, History

4.2 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Federal and state dollars pay for so much of what goes into the American public school education of our kids, but it isn't so straight forward when it comes to keeping them fed on school grounds. What movements and laws lead to American school kids accessing lunch? What does it cost, and who has to pay? Jessica Terrell, journalist and host of Left Over podcast and Crystal FitzSimons, Director of School and Out-of-School Time Programs at the Food Research and Action Center are our guides to the first part of our two-parter on school meals in America. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	All right, it's meatloaf for fish sticks.
0:05.0	Teddy, it's been meatloaf or fish sticks every Friday since school was invented.
0:11.0	Nick... school was invented.
0:18.0	Nick, do you remember lunch in public school? I don't think there's anything I remember better
0:21.0	about public school than the lunch we had.
0:23.7	Just for the record, you should know that meatloaf also grows by several other eggs.
0:29.2	Pepper steak, Swiss steak, and Salisbury steak.
0:37.0	One thing that stands out to me was a dish called American Chop Sui, which was basically
0:45.3	macaroni and a pasta sauce.
0:47.3	Yep.
0:49.3	I remember a few things.
0:50.8	I remember in elementary school there were always like everyday
0:54.8	potato sticks like thin pieces of potato chips basically and I always I was like
1:00.2	why can't we just have full potato chips?
1:03.6	And on certain days, I think it was probably Fridays.
1:06.5	There was Ilio's pizza.
1:08.7	Oh yeah, we always had Friday pizza.
1:10.2	It was always rectangular.
1:11.3	Yeah, rectangle pizza. It was never fully cooked on the bottom.
1:15.0	And then every once in a while there were mashed potatoes and they were served with an ice cream
1:18.8	scoop with gravy and they were probably out of a box, but I am who I am, so I ate them.
1:23.4	The smell of school lunch is something I can't forget.
	...

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