Whether kids love or hate the food served there, the American school lunchroom is the stage for one of the most popular yet flawed social welfare programs in our nation's history. School Lunch Politics covers this complex and fascinating part of American culture, from its origins in early twentieth-century nutrition science, through the establishment of the National School Lunch Program in 1946, to the transformation of school meals into a poverty program during the 1970s and 1980s. Susan Levine investigates the politics and culture of food; most specifically, who decides what American children should be eating, what policies develop from those decisions, and how these policies might be better implemented. Even now, the school lunch program remains problematic, a juggling act between modern beliefs about food, nutrition science, and public welfare. Levine points to the program menus' dependence on agricultural surplus commodities more than on children's nutritional needs, and she discusses the political policy barriers that have limited the number of children receiving meals and which children were served. But she also shows why the school lunch program has outlasted almost every other twentieth-century federal welfare initiative. In the midst of privatization, federal budget cuts, and suspect nutritional guidelines where even ketchup might be categorized as a vegetable, the program remains popular and feeds children who would otherwise go hungry. As politicians and the media talk about a national obesity epidemic, School Lunch Politics is a timely arrival to the food policy debates shaping American health, welfare, and equality. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

School Meal Programs: Changes to Federal Agencies' Procedures Could Reduce Risk of School Children Consuming Recalled Food

In Eating to Learn, Learning to Eat, historian A. R. Ruis explores the origins of American school meal initiatives to explain why it was (and, to some extent, has continued to be) so difficult to establish meal programs that satisfy the often competing interests of children, parents, schools, health authorities, politicians, and the food industry. Through careful studies of several key contexts and detailed analysis of the policies and politics that governed the creation of school meal programs, Ruis demonstrates how the early history of school meal program development helps us understand contemporary debates over changes to school lunch policies.

Management of Swallowing and Feeding Disorders in Schools examines the most significant issues in swallowing and feeding facing school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Topics addressed are unique to the school setting, ranging from organizing a team procedure in a district to serving children with complex medical issues, behavioral feeding disorders, and neurological feeding disorders. Ethical, legal, and cultural issues are also addressed. Many students in school districts across the country exhibit the signs and symptoms of dysphagia, and children who were originally treated for dysphagia in hospitals and other settings often begin attending public schools at three years old. The difficulty they had with swallowing and feeding frequently follows them to the school setting. Further, there are many students who develop swallowing and feeding disorders as a result of traumatic brain injury, neurological disorders and syndromes, behavioral disorders, and so forth. The range of students needing services for swallowing and feeding disorders in the school setting can be from three to twenty-two years of age and from mild dysphagia to tube feeding. The identification and treatment of swallowing and feeding disorders in schools is relatively new. There are still many districts in the country and internationally that do not address the needs of children with dysphagia. As school-based SLPs take on the challenge of this population there is a need for information that is current, accurate, and thorough. University programs include very little training, if any, at this time in the area of swallowing and feeding in the school setting. This text is appropriate for both a dysphagia course as well as courses that train SLP students to work with school-aged students.

From nationally renowned school food reform expert and Cook for America(R) co-founder KATE ADAMICK comes this timely book dispelling the myth that school food reform is cost prohibitive. Touted by such food systems leaders as Marion Nestle, Mark Bittman, Jamie Oliver, and Jan Poppendieck, and praised by leaders in the education and school food arenas, LUNCH MONEY: SERVING HEALTHY SCHOOL FOOD IN A SICK ECONOMY provides effective money-saving and revenue-generating tools for use in any school kitchen or cafeteria. Included in this practical how-to book are examples, diagrams, charts, and worksheets that unlock the financial secrets to scratch-cooking in the school food environment and prove that a penny saved is much more than a penny earned. Through both wit and wisdom, Adamick demonstrates how school food can be transformed from a problem into a solution to the childhood obesity epidemic, which serves as a reminder that learning doesn't stop at the cafeteria door. PROCEEDS FROM THE SALE OF THIS BOOK WILL BE DONATED TO CHILDREN'S HEALTH FOUNDATION. PRAISE FOR LUNCH MONEY "Kate Adamick is my go-to guru for tough-minded practical advice about school food. . . . This book is a must for anyone who works with school food as well as parents who care what their kids eat in school." - MARION NESTLE, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and author of What to Eat and Food Politics "Ever since childhood obesity put improving the quality of school food on the national agenda, the conventional wisdom has been that fresh preparation on site - 'scratch cooking' - is too expensive to consider. In this remarkable book, Kate Adamick has effectively retired that myth. . . . Every food service director and school food reformer in America should read this book." - JANET POPPENDIECK, Professor of Sociology, Hunter College (CUNY), and author of Free for All: Fixing School Food in America "With her intimate knowledge of the system, Kate Adamick demonstrates that the solutions to the school lunch issue can be tackled by regular people, as long as we have the will to change." - MARK BITTMAN, New York Times columnist and author of How to Cook Everything "I love what Kate does in her brilliant work. She's a true ambassador for sustainable change that can be achieved if people really want it. She's inspirational, no-nonsense and realistic." - JAMIE OLIVER, Chef, author, and founder of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution " . . . I was pleasantly surprised by how effective the tools in Lunch Money are . . . . The lunch money lessons learned enabled our school nutrition program to move forward from 90% processed menu items to 90% scratch cooking within 2 years and, most important, we are operating at a net profit. . . . " - KATHY DELTONTO, RE-1J Nutrition Service Director, Montrose, Colorado "Lunch Money answers the daunting question of how to get healthy food within hands reach of America's public school students at an affordable price and elevates the status of the 'lunch lady' to the Lunch Teacher(TM) . . . . " - DENNIS VAN ROEKEL, President, National Education Association "Adamick proves that with a few smart choices, school food service managers don't have to choose between healthy kids and a healthy bottom line." - CURT ELLIS, Executive Director, FoodCorps, and Filmmaker, King Corn "[Adamick's] belief that school food is not the problem, but the solution, is the right step, in the right direction, at the right time. . . . - DONNA WEST, Child Nutrition Manager, Brownwood Elementary, Scottsboro, Alabama

The tenth anniversary edition of an essential text on food politics: “Well researched and lucidly written . . . This book is sure to spark discussion” (Publishers Weekly). When John Robbins first released The Food Revolution in 1987, his insights into America’s harmful eating habits gave us a powerful wake-up call. Since then, Robbins has continued to shine a spotlight on the most important issues in food politics, such as our dependence on animal products, provoking awareness and promoting change. Robbins’s arguments for a plant-based diet are compelling and backed by over twenty years of work in the field of sustainable agriculture and conscious eating. This timely new edition will enlighten those curious about plant-based diets and fortify the mindsets of the already converted.