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Politics and Society in Modern America
School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America's Favorite Welfare Program
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.
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.
272 pages, Paperback
First published February 25, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 24, 2025
It offers a comprehensive exploration of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), tracing its evolution from its inception in the early 20th century to its current status as a cornerstone of American social welfare.
Levine delves into the complex interplay of nutrition science, social reform, and political dynamics that shaped the NSLP.
Regards: https://8171ehsaasprogram.net/
Levine delves into the complex interplay of nutrition science, social reform, and political dynamics that shaped the NSLP.
Regards: https://8171ehsaasprogram.net/
January 31, 2021
Great read. If this book doesn’t illustrate the complexities of Public Policy in the US, I don’t know what will. The book has lots of type-os and is redundant at times, but both the concepts and the content are excellent.
November 26, 2023
A pretty brief, but comprehensive, administrative history. School lunch is a neat window into the american 20th century, and it was interesting to read as a Young Parent Who Cares About Things. Not transformational or nothing, but an interesting read.
February 27, 2019
This book is so incredibly repetitive— like, “how many different ways can I say the exact same thing?”
June 12, 2020
A good academic overview of the federal school lunch program; a general, non-academic overview is still needed.
March 2, 2024
Had no idea how complicated the National School Lunch Program is, how many ways its gone wrong in the past and how many ways child welfare advocates have tried to plug the holes.
May 11, 2015
What a long, drawn-out and disappointing story.
Unfortunately, I'm inclined to recommend that you just read the summary of each chapter in her introduction, and skip the rest. While there are lots of interesting tidbits, this book depends heavily on the assumption that the reader is an American history major. The chapters often jump around, making the chronology confusing and the book repetitive. At the same time, there are frequent references to things I never learned about in my history courses, but which are not explained. The editor was clearly lost as well, as there are incomplete sentences strewn throughout the book.
To give some credit, the book improves steadily in chapters 5 - 8. While the content of the prior chapters is needed to understand what's going on, they could easily be summarized into a single chapter.
Unfortunately, I'm inclined to recommend that you just read the summary of each chapter in her introduction, and skip the rest. While there are lots of interesting tidbits, this book depends heavily on the assumption that the reader is an American history major. The chapters often jump around, making the chronology confusing and the book repetitive. At the same time, there are frequent references to things I never learned about in my history courses, but which are not explained. The editor was clearly lost as well, as there are incomplete sentences strewn throughout the book.
To give some credit, the book improves steadily in chapters 5 - 8. While the content of the prior chapters is needed to understand what's going on, they could easily be summarized into a single chapter.
July 9, 2014
Gave this book five stars because the issues it covers on the lack of consistent policy and planning in providing lunch to school kids, and particularly how nutrition continues to get lost as an objective in school lunches, is exactly the problem we face in 2014. The beginning of the book on the historical beginnings of school lunches was very thorough and the more recent years less so, but this work clearly illustrates the path children have been led down to favor junk food. It is absolutely on target to say that school lunch policies allowing high fat, high salt, nutrition-sparse foods in school cafeterias is part of what has led America's children to become adults battling with obesity and all related diseases. Every politician voting on school lunch policy should read this book.
June 2, 2011
I very much enjoyed this look at the history and politics of the federal school lunch program. You can read my full review of it at http://federaleducationpolicy.wordpre... or http://bit.ly/iiozRL .
April 18, 2016
Perfect case study in how good intentions go awry, makes you appreciate how complicated public public policy becomes given pots of money, myriad interest groups (the least of whom are children). Decent expostion of all the stages of proposal, legislation, implementation, and revision, over decades. Fascinating, well written and footnoted if you really want to go deeper.
November 29, 2010
Interesting history of how we ended up with a school lunch program that serves french fries as a staple. Especially pertinent are the political and economic factors that fed into a wholescale privatization of school food services and the introduction of junk food to the system.
May 25, 2015
Very good and informative narrative of the history of the NSLP. I appreciated the writing and did not find it too dry. Many points of great historical research.
February 1, 2016
interesting that school lunch starts as agr aid and only over time because about feeding needy children 26privatization
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews