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If you could remake a school cafeteria, what would it look like? That’s the basis of a newly released report by FoodCorps, a nonprofit that works with communities to connect students to healthy food in school. The team’s Reimaging School Cafeteria’s report provides 13 areas of opportunity for child nutrition professionals, schools and the community.
The report was conducted by doing face-to-face interviews with more than 300 students and 100 adult stakeholders in the schools, including teachers, principals and child nutrition professionals. The interviews were conducted in nine schools, representing diverse backgrounds and service styles for lunches.
Listen in as I dig in with Erica Curry, director of education for FoodCorps, on how students, in particular, would reimagine their school cafeteria, if given the chance.
These are the 13 areas of opportunity (more information can be found on each one by downloading the full report):
- Lunch as social time
- The menu
- The cafeteria environment
- Food quality and desirability
- Student agency and voice
- Role modeling
- Presentation of food
- Regulations and compliant
- Home culture and context
- Food waste
- School food community
- Staff training and development
- Length of Lunch
