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One of the noisiest and happiest rooms in any school is a cafeteria full of students sharing a lunchtime meal with food provided on site or brought from home. Years ago, boys and girls did not share the ritual of eating at school; instead, they trudged long distances to eat with family members at home, and returned to school when lunch was over. Later, they carried lunches in buckets, pails or other containers. About one hundred years ago, schools on the east coast began serving lunches right on campus. It wasn’t until the 1930s that the federal government got involved to ensure that hungry children during the Great Depression had at least one good meal each day. Today school cafeterias feed millions of students daily—and lunch is often accompanied by school breakfast in the morning! Discover fascinating historical facts about this common practice as you and your student “devour” this issue highlighting school lunch programs!
In this issue students will:
- read informational text about the history of school lunch programs
- use the newspaper to complete a Back-to-School scavenger hunt
- find similarities and differences in objects through close observation
- design a personalized lunch box featuring favorite characters
- conduct an oral interview with family or friends about childhood school lunch memories using guiding questions
- learn how “Food Share Tables” may reduce food waste at school
- scour the news for articles related to agriculture or the growing, preparing, packaging and serving of food
- create a healthy lunch menu using veggies, fruit, protein and grains!
6 page PDF
