How NYC Students Saved School Lunch

T here were three clear reasons why Leslie Gomez Rivera avoided the cafeteria at her high school in Brooklyn: She didn’t like the food, the room felt hectic and there was a stigma attached to eating school meals. She preferred the library, where she could talk with friends, although sometimes that meant going without lunch altogether. So when Rivera heard about Youth Food Advocates (YFA), an initiative that trains New York City students to research issues around school food and advocate for changes, she realized she might be able to do something to make the whole situation better. With the help of YFA, the 16-year-old developed a survey and circulated it around Midwood High. She wanted to know what her fellow students liked to eat, what they wanted on the menu, why they stayed away from the cafeteria and what might make them come back. Participants at a Youth Food Advocates leadership training. Credit: Community Food Advocates “I had the answers to [some of the questions],” Rivera recalls, “but I wanted to know what my peers thought.” Around 100 students responded out of roughly 4,000 across Midwood’s two buildings. Their answers complicated the verdict that school lunch was simply bad. Participants singled out popcorn chicken, sauces, fruit and salads as popular items. They also raised concerns about food quality and limited choices, and some wanted more of the foods they ate at home. This was back in late 2020. By then, NYC had already made lunch free for every public school student following years of advocacy that included student organizers from YFA. But free food did not necessarily equate to food students wanted to eat, or a cafeteria where they wanted to spend their lunch period. The post How NYC Students Saved School Lunch appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful .