Review of The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools

Gaddis, Jennifer E.

doi:10.1093/sf/soaa146

Cited by 17 publications

(29 citation statements)

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“…The emotional elements of paid care work are rarely explicitly recognised, let alone compensated. As Gaddis (2019) points out, the descriptions of school foodservice jobs used by the School Nutrition Association do not mention the provision of care for students, but it is a 'gendered, unwritten and unwaged' element that is widely accepted as part of 'doing the job well ' (p. 143).…”

Section: Discussion: What Could Be Differentmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I don't do it for the money, I do it for the kids’: Examining school foodservice staff and student interactions using the lens of school connectedness

Caruso

Rosenthal

2021

Children & Society

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This study investigated social interactions between students and school foodservice staff in six US school districts. Qualitative data was analysed from 23 in-depth interviews with school foodservice managers and 17 focus groups in five high schools, seven middle schools and five elementary schools. Applying the lens of school connectedness, findings highlight the various forms of care experienced by students and staff. However, structural constraints limit opportunities for staff and students to interact and demonstrate care, suggesting potential opportunities for interventions to enhance the role of the cafeteria in contributing to students' socialemotional well-being.

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Section: Discussion: What Could Be Differentmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I don't do it for the money, I do it for the kids’: Examining school foodservice staff and student interactions using the lens of school connectedness

Caruso

Rosenthal

2021

Children & Society

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“…Critical food studies scholars argue that SFPs reliance on contingent labor relations (i.e., volunteers and part-time staff), charitable funding sources, and the devolution of responsibility from the government to communities reproduces neoliberal discourses used to justify SFPs remaining as an NGO service as opposed to a public good and responsibility (Allen & Guthman, 2006;Gaddis, 2019;Koc & Bas, 2012). Thus, the charitable service delivery model still dominates.…”

Section: Maintenance and Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of Canadian school food programs funded by provinces and territories

Ruetz

McKenna

2021

CanFoodStudies

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Given the complexity of school food programs (SFPs) in Canada and recent political developments, this research provides a systematic examination of provincially and territorially-funded SFPs during the 2018/19 school year. Relevant literature and the RE-AIM Framework, a planning and evaluation tool developed by Glasgow, Boles & Vogt (1999), informed the development of an electronic survey sent to leads in each province and territory to assess SFP Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance. Results from 24 surveys (16 from provincial/territorial ministries/ departments, supplemented by surveys from 8 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), indicate considerable variability across Canada. Collectively, provinces and territories contributed over $93 million to support a minimum of 6,159 programs in 5,186 JK-12 schools, funding free breakfasts, snacks, and/or lunches for a minimum of 1,018,323 or 20% of students (based on limited data in some jurisdictions). The majority of provinces and territories partner with one or more NGOs and rely heavily on NGO staff and volunteers. Program demand often exceeds supply and monitoring is inconsistent. This research, which provide an important but incomplete picture of SFPs in Canada, indicate the value of future discussions about SFP administration, especially about program mandates, student reach and universality, sustainability and resources, and monitoring based on nationally-harmonized metrics. The results offer opportunities to explore promising organizational practices, enhanced collaboration, and sharing of expertise, all of which would assist with developing the National School Food Program proposed in the 2019 federal budget.

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“…School lunch programs, whose funding streams were separate from the rest of school financing, always struggled financially. The goal was to keep lunches as affordable as possible, but programs were required to break even, and with diminishing budgets school lunch administrators found themselves in a constant struggle: trying to steady the costs of labor and food and still maintain food and nutrition quality (Gaddis 2019;Levine 2008;Poppendieck 2010). Throughout the 1970s, school lunch continued its downward spiral.…”

Section: The Political and Cultural Falloutmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the 1970s witnessed a remarkable increase in (sugar-, salt-, and fat-laden) children's food products and the direct marketing to kids on, for example, Saturday morning cartoon shows. It is not difficult to connect the dots and understand how food corporations perceived the benefits of taking over school lunch programs, allowing them to cultivate tastes, and create in children desires and demands for their products that would extend into adulthood (Gaddis 2019;Winson 2004). Further, during this period many food professionals and the general public adopted a ''nutritionism'' ethos.…”

Section: The Political and Cultural Falloutmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By the 1980s, after decades of decline, school lunch had all but been abandoned by the middle class, and mainly regarded as for lower-income children, which made it easier for government, and the entire nation, to overlook. Because of insufficient funding, and the lack of strong labor unions and support for predominantly female labor force, school lunch programs became increasingly privatized, eventually leading to brand-name fast foods and sodas as lunch options (Gaddis 2019).…”

Section: The Political and Cultural Falloutmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ketchup as a Vegetable

Bentley¹

2021

Gastronomica

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The 1981 Ketchup as a Vegetable debacle has rendered ketchup an indelible fixture in our political as well as our culinary culture. In the Reagan administration’s attempt to slash $1.5 billion from children’s nutrition funding, school lunch program requirements were worded (whether deliberately or not) so as to conceivably allow for designating ketchup as a vegetable, allowing the USDA to eliminate one of the two vegetables required to meet minimum food and nutrition standards, and thus shrink costs considerably. While the proposal included other changes that involved similar, dramatic category shifting, these received only minor attention compared to the idea of the salt and sucrose–laden condiment ketchup as an equivalent to a bona fide vegetable. Ketchup came to symbolize the malevolence of the economic policy of the Ronald Reagan presidency even as it underscored the deep government indifference to children in lower-income and minority populations.

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Review of The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

‘I don't do it for the money, I do it for the kids’: Examining school foodservice staff and student interactions using the lens of school connectedness

‘I don't do it for the money, I do it for the kids’: Examining school foodservice staff and student interactions using the lens of school connectedness

Characteristics of Canadian school food programs funded by provinces and territories

Ketchup as a Vegetable

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