The cafeteria is the most intimidating place in the world for middle schoolers. Everyone is there, everyone is looking and everyone is judging. One wrong move and the stares only intensify. If you’re different in any way and self-conscious about that difference, the cafeteria is a nightmare.
However intimidating the lunchroom may be, school lunches are a vital part of many young lives across America. Just last week, a school lunch worker in Pennsylvania quit after an instituted “lunch shaming” policy, which calls for publicly replacing a chosen lunch with a lunch of lesser quality if a student’s account is in debt. Instead of a chosen hot lunch, the student receives a “sandwich, a fruit/vegetable serving and milk,” according to a Guardian article.
Students are not responsible for paying the bills, and a second grader should never have to be ashamed of selecting the “luxury lunch option” because of their parent’s inability to pay.
This incident is just another bomb in the school lunch battlefield. Oftentimes people overlook school lunches as nothing more than a time to socialize with friends, but for some, it’s far more than that.
Stories like that of Sherrie Gahn, from Whitney Elementary School in Nevada, haunt educators, parents and students alike. Gahn noticed her students pocketing packets of ketchup to make ketchup soup for dinner at home, prompting her to step in to assist the situation.
The terrifying thing about Gahn’s story, and the story of many children across the United States, is that school lunches are their primary source of nutrition. For these children, it’s not about looking forward to pizza Friday or ice cream Tuesday, but gathering any food they possibly can while at school.
These are the kids who nod off on Monday mornings because they haven’t eaten for several days. These are the kids who don’t have food when they leave the confines of their elementary schools. These are the kids who don’t need to deal with receiving a sandwich instead of a more-nutritious and filling hot lunch when their parents can’t afford to pay a debt.
In Boston in particular, the irony of hunger is glaring. Suffolk County ranks as 19th for most families qualifying for free lunches, with 65.63 percent of students qualifying for free lunches. To put that in perspective, schools receive Title 1 status after elementary schools reach a free/reduced lunch rate of 40 percent or higher and higher and secondary schools reach a free/reduced lunch rate of 60 percent or higher. A Title 1 distinction is intended to “help address the greater educational challenges facing high-poverty communities by targeting extra resources to school districts and schools with the highest concentrations of poverty,” according to the Department of Education.
These are schools just down the street from places like the George Sherman Union. We, too, are students, but our experience is vastly different.
Though small organizations across the nation are working together to address the problem of student hunger, like Utah-based Five.12 Foundation and the Greater Boston Food Bank, a greater initiative is necessary for change. Michelle Obama has been a tireless crusader on behalf of healthy eating with her Let’s Move! campaign, more needs to be done.
The private sector could provide a short-term alternative, through initiatives like the ones coming from Boston-area Whole Foods Markets. By donating $30,000, the corporate giant made a small contribution in the grand scheme of student hunger, but a contribution nonetheless.
Those in elected positions need to take a cue from Gahn, who has said on numerous occasions, “If you give me your child, I’ll give you what you need.” At the end of the day, public schools fall under governmental jurisdiction and funding, and therefore have the right to demand funding for an issue plaguing large swaths of students.
Nutrition is not a luxury, and American students are the next generation. If they are falling asleep in school from malnourishment, how can they be expected to learn?
Public schools, and cafeterias in particular, deserve a level of respect that they are not currently receiving. Healthy, nutritious food is not a luxury and should not be out of the reach of any American student. The cafeteria is enough of a scary place, there’s no need to make it worse.
