America has a long history of trying to balance school lunch nutrition with flavor
By: Tobias Rangel & Cayden Pegg | Photos by: Cullen McCallister and Tobias Rangel
Poor quality. Disgusting. Not enough options. These are opinions shared by Riverside students about the school lunch they eat every day in the cafeteria.
A common target for criticism, both at RHS and most other public schools, school lunches have a long and interesting history in American society.
The history
By the end of the nineteenth century, Philadelphia and Boston had become the first two cities in America to introduce school lunch programs. The programs were made due to the effort from welfare organizations.
Emelyn Rude, in her 2016 Time Magazine article, wrote that it was considered successful and received praise from teachers, critics and students. The programs “not only provided growing bodies with nutritious foods, but they were also teaching children healthy eating habits and helping them learn to choose their food wisely.”
During the Great Depression, many families were struggling for food. The American government saw school lunch as an excellent solution. By 1941, federally run school lunch programs were operating in all states, with over 2 million lunches being served daily.
The programs were also made to help young American men be fit for war. According to the Illinois School Nutrition Association, the National School Lunch Program was made largely due to “claims that many American men had been rejected for World War II military service because of diet-related health problems.”
In the 1960s, both Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon decided to increase school lunch funding. In 1966, the Child Nutrition Act was passed, adding more subsidies for low-income children and also adding school breakfast programs.
However, when President Ronald Reagan took office, his administration took away $1.5 billion of funding from school lunch programs.As a result, schools reduced lunch portions,and the number of children eligible for government subsidized meals. Reagan also infamously declared ketchup a vegetable. A 1981 Reuters piece stated “ketchup, which has a high sugar content, was defined under new Government rules as a vegetable.”
This led to school lunches becoming largely privatized and nutrition standards no longer being important. Child obesity rates skyrocketed, and nutrition became a big part of the school lunch debate.
In 2010, Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, attempting to return to the original purpose of school lunch. The Department of Agriculture overhauled school lunches in order to meet the new nutritional standards, with the goal of making students healthier. The food being offered in school cafeterias was completely changed, with menu items such as whole wheat pizza crust, roasted potatoes and salad. Here at Riverside, menu items include whole wheat pepperoni pizza, salad and soy butter sandwiches.
Admin opinon
Assistant Principal Gregory Goble has worked in many different schools and seen a variety of different ways to feed kids.
Goble believes that school lunch is crucial to a student body, especially since the other alternatives include unhealthy fast food.
“Considering that a large portion of students qualify to get free or reduced lunch…I think it’s critical that we continue to offer it,” Goble said.
According to district data, 51.46% of Riverside students qualify for free or reduced lunch, which is slightly less than the DPS average of 55.98%.
The federal government requires schools to include “a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; set limits on saturated fat and sodium; and set both minimum and maximum calorie levels” in their school lunches.
“That also lends itself to things that students don’t necessarily want to eat,” Goble explained. “Sometimes, I question the stuff that they’re serving as, how it meets that standard, but I trust that they do the job that they’re supposed to do.”
Riverside’s food selection meets the MyPlate criteria. On January 5, 2024, the cafeteria served chicken sandwiches as protein and grains, carrots and peas as vegetables, different kinds of fruit, juice and milk as dairy.
However, Goble believes that Riverside is doing a good job in organizing how students are receiving lunch from the cafeteria.
“I like that we have kiosks with options to not go to the cafeteria,” Goble said. “You can certainly see that on days where it’s cold outside, or it’s raining outside. It makes it pretty uncomfortable in the cafeteria. Having options for students to go to classrooms to eat or alternative areas is certainly good.”
Goble also praises the organization of free breakfast kiosks at the front entrance of the school in the morning.
Many students have the opinion that school lunch looks “terrible and is disgusting,” a common stigma relating to school-offered food. Goble disagrees with the stigma, believing that opinions like that are students being picky and judgemental.
“I see the school lunch every single day, and very rarely do I think that something doesn’t look exceptionally appetizing,” he said. “There are times where maybe something is overcooked, or maybe there is a food that is not my preference, but there’s always more than one option. What I’ve had has been pretty appetizing and delicious, to be honest with you.”
This school year, Durham Public Schools returned to a free or reduced lunch format. The district moved away from the free for everyone format that was used during the pandemic.
Many students at Riverside are opting to not eat anything instead of eating school lunch. This choice concerns school leaders, as nutrition is crucial for student learning and well-being.
“Everything that affects a student’s development is a concern to me,” said Goble. “A lot of people have tried to help. I know a lot of teachers keep snacks in their classrooms. There are a great amount of people in this building that care about a student being hungry and I think they have done what they can.”
(From left) Amira Nada, Janette Harris, Julie Jones, Sallie Hicks, Pamela Morton, Wini Fred Smith, Henry Flournah, Courtney Daye, Carrie Shaffer, and Sarah Degroat. Robert Evans and Cynthia Guy are also members of the staff but are not pictured.
Meet the manager
Amira Nada is the cafeteria manager at Riverside.
Although she has a law degree, she originally wanted a job in the central office, but was offered a position in sanitation at Riverside. She took on the challenge and has been the cafeteria manager here at Riverside for eight years.
Nada has 15 years of experience in food and nutrition, including a supervisory position at the local Millenium Hotel near Duke University. She feels the cafeteria staff are crucial for students’ well-being.
“Without us here, the kids would not be eating,” she said.
Nada believes students are being well fed at Riverside.
“We don’t have the problem of if students are being fed or not,” Nada said. “Some students try to eat two times because the food is so good, and we have to tell them that they can only have one lunch.”
The cafeteria caters to around 500 students daily. Students have the ability to fill out a free or reduced lunch form based on their family’s income. These forms are sent to the food and nutrition director, and if the student qualifies they are provided with free or reduced lunch, ensuring that they are able to eat the meal every day.
There are 14 members of the cafeteria staff team, and each works on an individual task to ensure seamless functionality every day. While 75% of the food is pre-cooked and heated in the oven, some menu items are crafted from scratch. In the morning, the staff work on preparing and serving breakfast. Then, they transition to working on lunch.
Cooks are split based on specific parts of a meal, with some cooking vegetables, others working on the main part of the menu item and some making dessert for the students. This system is utilized to ensure every meal has the necessary components.
