FEEST's Role in Transforming School Meals
A Collaborative Effort for Food Justice
The image is the cover of the 2022-2023 Recommendations for School Meals and Food Education Report.
At FEEST, we’re all about the power of youth-led organizing to shake things up and create real change in our communities. We’re proud to be founding members of the Seattle School Meals & Food Education working group—a rad collaboration with folks from Seattle Public Schools (SPS) departments, the City of Seattle, King County, and community orgs serving Seattle students.
This group is all about making big policy changes and working directly with the people most affected to lead the way. We showed this commitment loud and clear in our latest project: the 2022-2023 Recommendations to Improve School Meals & Increase Food Education at Seattle Public Schools. On July 22nd, the Working Group led a Community Reportback to share more with our community on what we want to change and why it’s important.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
The City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability & Environment (OSE) teamed up with us at FEEST, InterimCDA’s WILD Program, and the Y-WE Grow program for some awesome youth listening sessions in the summer of 2022. These sessions were all about hearing directly from young people, and gathering their insights to shape the report’s recommendations. We’re super proud to have been part of this collab, highlighting how vital community and youth voices are in policy-making!
Priority Action Recommendations and Why They Matter:
The Seattle School Meals & Food Education Working Group laid out three big policy moves to make school meals and food education way better:
Boosting High-Quality School Meals:
What We Want:
Provide more high-quality school meals, developed with student input, by increasing staff capacity at Seattle Public Schools Culinary Services.
Why It’s Important:
This means meals that are not only nutritious but also tasty, leading to more students eating better, feeling better, and doing better in school.
Impact:
Short Term: In the short term, this will result in expanded initiatives to provide more fresh, scratch-cooked, and culturally relevant meals across the district.
Medium Term: Improved academic outcomes and attendance, better physical and mental health, and increased food security for students.
Long Term: More equitable growth of the local food economy due to increased purchases from local and BIPOC food producers.
More students eating school meals! A major win-win for everyone involved!
Free School Food for All:
What We Want:
Make school food free for all students by pursuing district-wide universal meal policies.
Why It’s Important:
This levels the playing field, making sure every student gets nutritious food, no matter their economic background. It promotes equity and reduces food insecurity.
Impact:
Short Term: Removing barriers to accessing school meals and increasing student participation.
Medium Term: Improved academic outcomes, physical and mental health, and increased well-being and food security for BIPOC and low-income students.
Long Term: This policy will ensure sustained equitable access to nutritious meals, benefiting low- and middle-income families most.
Integrating Food and Garden Education:
What We Want:
Integrate more food and garden education districtwide by advocating for policy changes and creating a district-level School Garden Coordinator position.
Why It’s Important:
Teaching students about food and gardening helps them understand their food sources, promotes healthy eating habits, and builds a connection to their community and environment.
Impact:
Short Term: This will enhance district-level coordination to expand food and garden education offerings in the short term. We will also see improved health, academic outcomes, and lifelong food literacy for students.
Medium Term: Improved student knowledge and attitudes toward food and nutrition, leading to increased fruit and vegetable consumption. We will also see equity increase because students will have access to food and garden education!
Long Term: Improved lifelong skills related to food, nutrition, health, culture, and food systems. We will also see a stronger connection to our communities, by way of providing food and garden education districtwide!
FEEST’s Healthy Food Roundtable and Youth Voices:
Back in 2019, we kicked off the Healthy Food Roundtable (HFRT), where we heard from over 320 community members about the hurdles youth face in getting healthy food. This roundtable brought together a mix of students, parents, teachers, and community members to brainstorm ways to boost fruit and veggie intake among young people.
The HFRT came up with some awesome ideas, like weekly CSA-style snack boxes, more culturally relevant menu items, and enrolling more schools in the Community Eligibility Provision for free meals for all students. These steps are crucial for tackling the deep-rooted inequalities in our food system.
You can read more about the Healthy Food Roundtable work by checking out FEEST’s Publications!
Recent Progress and Highlights:
We’ve been busy making big moves at the Seattle School Meals & Food Education Working Group, and here’s what’s been happening in Seattle Public Schools (SPS):
- Central Kitchen Remodel: By October 2024, the central kitchen will be back and better than ever, ready to whip up more scratch-cooked and culturally relevant meals.
- Menu Highlights for SY 24/25:Get ready for some tasty new additions like Plant-Based Pozole, Ramen Bar, Cubano Sandwich, and Grain Bowl Bar!
- Expansion of Free School Meals: We’ve jumped from 8 to 40 schools offering free meals in the 2023-24 school year. Talk about a win!
- Food Waste Reduction Efforts: We’re rolling out durable items in lunchrooms and offering classes that link cooking with reducing waste. Less waste, more taste!
- School Garden Support: 80% of Seattle Public Schools now have a garden, and we’re working on boosting support and reviving inactive gardens.
Thank You for Joining Us!
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who joined us for the Seattle School Meals & Food Education Working Group Community Reportback webinar on July 22nd! We also want to thank those who read and engaged with the written report. By reading and sharing your thoughts on the report, you are helping to spread awareness and drive the conversation forward. Your participation and engagement were instrumental in discussing and advocating for the necessary changes to improve school meals for all students. The insights shared during the webinar will help guide our ongoing efforts to create a more equitable and nutritious food system in our schools.
Show FEEST some love!
Youth are in the lead at FEEST because we know that change is not effective unless those most impacted by health inequities are the decision makers. Support youth leadership by donating today, OR sign up for our newsletter to get the latest from FEEST!