Free For All Fixing School Food In America Summary

In Free for All: Fixing School Food in America, Janet Poppendieck points out in the very beginning of the book, that school food isn’t healthy at all and most aren’t helping break the chain of overcoming these issues. She starts off by explaining her visits to various schools and her hands-on experience into the world of school lunches. Poppendieck explains how nutrition-deficient meals came to dominate America's schools and discusses the problems in the national school lunch/breakfast programs. Even how those in charge of creating these menus overlook what is really being given to these children for lunch/breakfast just because they can label it as a fruit or a vegetable. She shows how many key figures are looking for reimbursement from the free, reduced, or full priced meals because they can claim some federal dollars, and make sure that kids at least taking three out of five items offered to them; this is what congress called “offer versus serve”.

Yet, not looking at the bigger picture, the “BENEFIT” of these children. Poppendieck goes on to explain how since way back when the war began and how that set-in motion a “war on food” using surpluses as well as cutting the budget for lunches in order to make ends meet with these programs, yet that still didn’t get the job done. The significance that the government has held over these food programs are heavily weighed in her book. She gives us an overview with USDA reports, sit ins on courses with other educators, food personnel, and parents. The result is multiple views about the problems facing school lunch, and how we could find ways to improve them. Reasons why children/parents, along with many others tend not to budge when it comes to modifying school lunches is because they feed their children the same fast-food things at