What’s for lunch?
Schools’ midday meal offerings — an essential source of fuel for young bodies and minds — reflect many considerations
It is 12:20 on a Thursday afternoon at Mandela International Magnet School, and sophomore Elijah Estrada picks at his school lunch, which is a ham-and-cheese sandwich with a baked potato. His side options included a salad, apples, oranges and milk.
Estrada, who says his family of six takes advantage of free school lunches to ease the burden on their budget, is just one of the millions of students across the nation who rely on school lunches as a trusted source of nutrition and energy for the remainder of the day.
“For people like me who are on the government free school lunch plan, and who can’t afford to pack a lunch every day, [school lunches are] very important,” Estrada says. “We would not be eating anything for lunch otherwise.”
National school lunches were introduced in 1946 by President Harry S. Truman, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the National School Lunch Program at the federal level.
Danielle Bliss, a nutritionist for Santa Fe Public Schools, says malnutrition in the U.S. following the Great Depression was a catalyst for the program.
“This was an action in part due to the large number of men being rejected for military service during World War II due to nutritional deficiencies,” she explains.
Today, school lunches provide necessary nutrition for more than 30 million kids each day, according to the Agriculture Department’s website.
“About two-thirds of those [30 million] kids live close to the poverty line to the point where they’re getting subsidized, so this is the main source of nutrition for many of them on a daily basis,” says Bettina Elias Siegel, a journalist whose blog, The Lunch Tray, concentrates on issues surrounding kids and food.
In New Mexico, almost 70 percent of public and charter school students were enrolled for free or reduced-price lunches in the 2016-17 school year, according to the Kids Count Data Center.
In addition to school lunches, the state also offers the Breakfast After the Bell program, which provides breakfast to low-income elementary school students.
Some districts, including Santa Fe Public Schools, have begun to provide locally sourced and unprocessed foods to their students.
Bliss says the district has used 75,000 pounds of beef, cheese and produce from local farms so far this year. Next year, she says, the school district also plans to purchase only antibiotic-free chicken.
“The Student Nutrition Department at SFPS goes beyond the minimum requirements,” Bliss says.
In addition to using as many fresh, local foods as possible, she says, the district tries be transparent about its ingredients, and district employees “welcome open communication about the food being served to children.”
Now, for the important part: How do these meals taste?
Generation Next asked students at high schools around town what they thought of their school lunches. Overall, the reviews ranged from lukewarm to fairly satisfied.
Estrada, for one, seems somewhat content. He says he thinks some of the meat could be better and that the school could splurge on better chili powder for Frito pies.
“[School lunches are] not as terrible as everyone says,” Estrada says. “Sure, a lot of the steamed vegetables aren’t good, or the cheese is probably a plastic alternative, but they give us food to eat to keep us going. In the end, there’s a lot of school lunches I feel excited to eat when I hear they’re serving them.”
The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, signed by then President Barack Obama, was an extension of the National School Lunch Act. It requires governments to raise school lunch standards by mandating a minimum serving of fruits, veggies and whole grains, and it caps sodium and sugar content.
Rita Condon of the New Mexico Department of Health’s Office of Nutrition and Physical Activity recommends that a school lunch include lean protein, whole grain, and fruits and vegetables.
“Of all the food groups, I would say fruits and vegetables are the most important because they have that nutritional value but not as much caloric content,” Condon says. “Whole grains are important, too, because when grains are refined, all that fiber and nutritional value is wiped off.”
Katie Morford, a registered dietitian who discusses topics such as healthy eating on her website, Mom’s Kitchen Handbook, agrees. She says whole grains can be incorporated by using brown rice in a stir-fry, for example. She also believes having protein and a source of calcium at lunch is important.
She stresses that drinks are important, too.
“Kids need to hydrate during the day, and the best way to do that is to drink plenty of water,” Morford says. “Sodas and other sugary drinks don’t belong in a lunch.”
Experts agree that when lunches meet the aforementioned standards, the benefits to a teen’s physical and mental well-being are immense.
“It’s pretty fundamental that kids and teens eat regular, nutrient-dense meals,” Morford says. “They need a balanced lunch to keep them energized throughout the day, both physically and so they have the ability to focus. We forget that our brain needs fuel as much as our body, and that fuel comes in the form of nutritious food.”
While school lunches are crucial to millions of kids across the country, Bliss says that the individuals serving the lunches also deserve recognition.
“Being a school cafeteria worker or dubbed ‘lunch lady’ is usually misunderstood, thankless, hard work,” she says. “They believe in our work to feed hungry kids and improve access [to] healthy food, especially those who are less fortunate.”