The History of the School Lunch

Feeding kids a healthy lunch every school day is a feat of science and logistics. Molded into shape by nutrition scientists who wanted to optimize children’s health, the school lunch has endured war, economic depression, and even a global pandemic. Some might say it’s all the stronger for it. So how did all these crises shape school lunch? And is there any room to give our rectangle pizzas and frozen chicken patties a little grace?

Host: Alexis Pedrick
Executive Producer: Mariel Carr
Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez
Associate Producer: Sarah Kaplan
Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer
Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Resource List

1930s Farmer Talks About the Great Depression and Poverty. YouTube video. 1:54. Posted by Timeless Footage, March 10, 2020.

ABC Evening News. May 14, 1969. Vanderbilt Television News Archive.

CBS News. CBS Evening News. September 4, 1981. Vanderbilt Television News Archive.

CBS News. September 25, 1981. Vanderbilt Television News Archive.

C-SPAN. House Session, Part 1.

Daily School Meals During Coronavirus Closures. YouTube video. 4:59. CBS Sacramento.

Great Depression, Film Archives NYC. YouTube video. 6:46. Posted by Reel America, October 30, 2020.

Hunger in America. CBS News. "Hunger in America: The 1968 CBS Documentary That Shocked America."

Levine, Susan. School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America’s Favorite Welfare Program. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008.

Lunch Line. Directed by Michael Graziano and Ernie Park. Uji Films, 2010.

Mitman, Greg. YouTube video. 2:44. Posted January 13, 2023.

Mrs. Croft talks to parents about the need to provide hot lunch to students at a school in Pittsford, Vermont. Critical Past.

NBC News. December 21, 1981. Vanderbilt Television News Archive.

Nixon Addresses Hunger, 1969. YouTube video. 3:02. Posted by AP Archive, November 5, 2015.

Poppendieck, Janet. Free for All: Fixing School Food in America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.

“Ronald Reagan on Big Government: ‘Government is the Problem.’” YouTube video, 0:15.

Ruis, Andrew R. Eating to Learn, Learning to Eat: The Origins of School Lunch in the United States. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2017.

“The Twisted History of School Lunch, Part 1.” Pressure Cooker. Podcast audio, 35:17. Hosted by Jane Black and Liz Dunn. Omny Studio, February 6, 2024.