The primary goal of the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) is to provide nutritious meals to children in low-income areas when school is not in session. This issue of "Nourishing News" focuses on SFSPs. The articles contained in this issue are: (1) Is Your Summer Food Program Financially Fit? (Jean Zaske); (2) Keeping the…

One subject on which students are rarely shy to express an opinion is school lunches, which the author turns into a teachable moment for U.S. history classes. Historically, school lunches have played an important role in providing nutrition for low-income students. On February 7, 1946, in response to an urgent bulletin sent to all Florida school…

For 20 years, Advocates for Children of New Jersey has published the Newark Kids Count Data Book, a one-stop source for child well-being data on our state's largest city. Newark Kids Count includes the latest statistics, along with five-year trend data, in the following areas: demographics, family economic security, food insecurity, child health,…

This article suggests that those interested in advocating healthier school lunches use a "School Lunch Lottery" to convince parents and administrators that change is necessary. During the lottery, key players are invited to experience one of three different school lunch options--a typical school lunch; a healthy bag lunch; and a school cafeteria…

Thousands of schools have tried the Mix It Up at Lunch Day program since it started 10 years ago in 2001. Teaching Tolerance continues to get glowing reviews from around the country. Teachers and administrators are understandably eager to make their Mix Day better--to reach more students. Here are 10 proven ways to give Mix an extra stir.

Food and eating in schools have most often been thought of as utilitarian parts of the day, as distractions, and, for education researchers, as lacking incentives to study or even as objects of derision rather than serious concern. Yet there are good reasons why scholars of education should consider food and food practices. These include the…

With food and fuel prices increasing sharply, food and nutrition directors in school districts around the country are finding themselves facing some uncomfortable choices. In some districts, school lunch menus are being pared down to fewer selections, instead of the array of healthy options districts would like to offer. In other areas, canned and…

This report provides a detailed portrait of Hispanic and White academic achievement gaps and how students' performance has changed over time at both the national and state levels. The report presents achievement gaps using reading and mathematics assessment data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for the 4th- and 8th-grade…

Background: Data for England from the national census can provide the socio-economic background of individual pupils and therefore the intake of schools. In many respects, this is more useful than the conventional measure of "free school meals", which has historically been used in the UK as a proxy measure for disadvantage. Prior to the…

Schools play a critical role in improving the dietary and physical activity behaviors of students. Schools can create an environment supportive of students' efforts to eat healthily and be active by implementing policies and practices that support healthy eating and regular physical activity and by providing opportunities for students to learn…

Summertime winding down and summer vacations coming to an end signal that back-to-school time is near. It's a time that many children eagerly anticipate--catching up with old friends, making new ones and settling into a new daily routine. Parents and children alike scan the newspapers and Web sites looking for sales to shop for a multitude of…

The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program operating in over 101,000 public and non-profit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to more than 30.5 million children each school day in 2008. In 1998, Congress expanded the National School Lunch…

This article presents the top 10 lists. The lists include enrollment, expenditures, salaries and growth rates. See how your institution ranks when compared to those in other states.

The kids at Louisa May Alcott School were more into Flamin' Hot Cheetos and nachos than frisee and couscous. That is, until Greg Christian got to them. Exactly three years ago, the chef known as Chicago's conscious caterer decided to share his gastronomic talents with the city's low-income children. So he took his pilot program straight to the…

Kershaw County School District in South Carolina may not be the first place that comes to mind when thinking about hotbeds of ed-tech innovation. Its student population is diverse and for the most part not wealthy: Camden High School is urban with 1,055 students, 45 percent of whom qualify for reduced lunch; Lugoff-Elgin High School is a large…