We hear a lot about school lunches in America and the food itself doesn't always get the best reputation
When I think about school lunches I think of boiled hamburgers
The cheese was always like plasticy
The staler it was, the more delicious it was
From Hollywood depictions to real-life memories, the school cafeteria is a quintessential part of American culture
But who decides what food gets put on the tray
and how come one school serves this on a dollar 25 budget while another serves this
Why are teachers working at McDonald's for a night
and how does a slice of Domino's Pizza meet USDA guidelines
Those are all loaded questions with complicated answers but if you really boil it down
the answer is money, lots and lots of money
Today the 4.9 billion lunches that get doled out in school cafeterias every year
make up a multi-billion dollar industry that makes sure millions of k ids are fed
It starts with Federal money but on its way to cafeterias, school districts have to order the meals
and food giants grab a big slice of the school lunch pie
But before we get to all of this
The food fight sweeping school cafeterias, going from tray to trash
Let's go back to the 1800s
In 1853, the Children's Aid Society of New York started an informal lunch program for its vocational school
but it wasn't until the 1930s that school lunches really caught on in the rest of the country
In about the 1890s, you see a real expansion
and the role of schools and community is when they actually start to become social institutions
and so, in addition to basic education they're also providing health services
and one of the things that happens when you know physicians and nurses start working in schools
they start documenting all kinds of cases of things like malnourishment
In 1935, Congress set aside money for school lunch programs
Not everyone in the community supported the government's efforts to feed kids during the day
Restaurant owners sued school districts for lost business
The courts typically sided in favor of the school's right to operate lunch rooms
And by 1941, roughly six million kids were eating food provided by the government
That food came from products farmers had too much of like pork, dairy, and wheat, a win for both schools and farmers
In the '40s, the Federal government passes the National School Lunch Act
and this makes it possible to actually fund the programs predominantly with public money
National School Lunch Program in thousands of schools for millions of American children
By this time, other countries around the world had already developed their own school lunch systems
While the U.S. took the lead from European countries, there was one thing that made school lunches in the U.S. distinctly American
a hint of capitalism
The fundamental basis for school lunches was a sort of business model
They often adopted like little tokens like little coins or use like tickets of some sort that you know paying kids would buy
and then kids who were receiving free lunches would be given the ticket
but the idea is that you were exchanging something, there was a transaction
Enter the School Lunch Lobby
Today you have groups like the School Nutrition Association and National School Boards Association advocating on behalf of the schools
In corporations like Tyson and PepsiCo show face at meetings to make sure their products are in school districts minds
Meanwhile, groups like the Food Research Action Center and the Center on Budget and Priorities keep a close watch on nutrition
Robert Doar worked as a commissioner under Mayor Bloomberg where he administered food assistance programs in New York City
And he's no stranger to the lobbying efforts in the world of government assistance
It is true that the interests here are not only what's best for low income families, the other interests are the various providers of food
This is true of anything we do in government, anytime the Federal government is extending significant dollars on a product
people that sell that product you're gonna be interested in maximizing that spending
In 1966, Congress passed the Child Nutrition Act expanding the school lunch program
In 1969, about 15% of kids were getting their lunch for free or at a lower price
In fiscal year 2017, that number had risen to 73%
That meant that millions of trays needed to be filled every day and that created a business opportunity
School lunch programs really start to move away from scratch cooking
and toward this kind of factory prepared meal that's been reheated and then served to them
And then came the funding fights which led to the infamous ketchup controversy
In 1981, The Reagan administration wanted to cut $1 billion in school lunch funding
In order to meet the nutritional guidelines while staying on a budget, the Department of Agriculture got creative and declared ketchup a vegetable
The backlash was so strong the funding cut was quickly reversed, but ketchup hasn't been the only product to stretch the definition of what makes a vegetable
Even today, some school pizza sauces count as a serving of veggies
French fries obviously are made out of potatoes and potatoes are a vegetable
That was another defeat I would say that the USDA experienced because of industry lobbying
Yes, fries still count as a veggie, frozen potato wedges are on the USDA's vegetable list for child nutrition programs
Those bags of frozen foods have to come from somewhere which is where companies like Tyson come in
The company, valued at more than $21 billion, saw the opportunity and acted
Tyson has its own k12 poduct catalog of frozen foods made just for school cafeterias
We reached out to Tyson for comment and to see how much of their business comes from its k12 food products
The company didn't respond and it's k12 earnings aren't specified in its annual report
but frozen foods aren't the only way to cash in on school lunches
In 2014, the USDA came up with something called smart snack guidelines, making the snack line healthier
Which meant if big food companies wanted to keep their products in schools they had to adapt
Now nearly every major food manufacturer in the U.S. has a catalogue of products custom-made to meet USDA standards
We felt like kids were getting exposed to these brands you know like Frito-Lay brands
and then they would go to the grocery store and want to buy that brand and it's not the same product
We did a study where we really put the two products side by side
Just looking at that it's super obvious that the companies really made no effort to distinguish
the one they were selling in school versus the one you could buy in the store
The product on the left labeled special edition is sold in schools, it has 7 grams of sugar, vitamin C 25%
The product on the right sold in stores has 10 grams of sugar, the vitamin C in this one is just 10%
And those custom-made foods aren't just in the snack line
Domino's has a special smart slice program with pizzas tailor-made to meet USDA standards
and the more pizzas schools buy, the more rewards points they wrack up
Those can be traded and for Domino's swag and even cafeteria equipment
Domino's told us, quote, We are proud of our school lunch product
It meets the USDA guidelines for school nutrition standards and is something that kids love to eat
It is also good for the schools as it is simple for them to serve and keeps lunch participation rates high
It also said that schools make the choice as to whether to serve their pizza branded or unbranded
Remember the SNA, one of the lobbies on behalf of schools, they're listed as a smart slice partner
And it's worth mentioning Domino's, Tyson and a number of other major food companies are SNA industry members
meaning they pay money for monthly newsletters advertising discounts and just a local legislative contacts
The SNA said, quote, While many schools are working to increase the amount of freshly prepared and scratch-made menu items
those with limited equipment and labor resources rely on healthy pre-prepared foods to ensure students receive balanced meals each day
Corporate money reaches far beyond the lunchroom
It works its way into schools' sporting events and celebrations through fundraisers
Think of scoreboards, parking lot signs, and pizza parties or that summer reading program
Krispy Kreme sponsors a major fundraising program too and McDonald's has a McTeacher's Night fundraising program
where teachers come in to work the counter in hopes that their kids come in to see them
It caught a lot of flack from school districts with LA's ending the program altogether but some schools still participate
None of those companies returned our request for comment
So why do people care so much
Schools need food and big companies have it but the childhood obesity rate has more than tripled since the 1970s
And with roughly 30 million kids getting their lunch from a government funded program
it raises the question, what responsibility does the government have to make their meals healthy
In 2010, Michelle Obama spearheaded a major change in the system with the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act
We have an obligation to make sure that those meals are as nutritious as possible
It tightened nutrition guidelines for cafeterias across the country, requiring them to serve more fruits and vegetables
At first, its noble intentions were praised but some took issue with how it actually played out in lunch rooms across the country
Kids throw food away at about the same rate as the rest of America but after the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act
people just started noticing it more
More kids were taking fruit it went up significantly but the same proportion was getting eaten and thrown away
So more is getting eaten and more is getting thrown away
Schools seem to be caught in the cycle of a lack of funding, kitchen training, and time
While there are Federal regulations, the menus really come from the schools on the local level
They're the ones ordering and preparing the food and since it's decentralized
it's hard to know which companies are making the most money and if kids are really getting fed quality meals
But some people are trying to change that on a local level
Dan Giusti is the former head chef of Noma where he created high-end meals for hundreds of dollars a person
Now he's running a group called Brigade working to bring scratch cooking, not just warming stations, to kitchens on a $1.25 budget
And he's trying to change the reputation of school lunches altogether
It's almost like it's this rite of passage like as a student in an institution like its just what you get, you get lousy food
In May 2018, the Trump administration rolled back some of the rules around whole grains, sodium and flavored milks
to give schools more flexibility in their meal planning
The politics, money and controversy around school lunches aren't going away
But at the end of the day, the kids are the ones it really impacts
And for some school lunches are the best meal they're going to get throughout the day
These kids are showing up to school everyday but at home they're not eating and it makes you rethink everything like holidays
like oh 3 day weekend, great
But that means that these kids aren't eating for 3 days, or snow days
But that means that not only are these kids not eating but they are also at home in an environment that's probably not good for them
Studies have shown that if kids are fed, they perform better in school and with millions of kids relying on free or low-cost lunches every day
it's a big, important problem to solve