The History of the School Lunch
05/29/25 • 49 min
Feeding kids a healthy lunch every school day is a feat of science and logistics. Molded into shape by nutrition scientists who wanted to optimize children’s health, the school lunch has endured war, economic depression, and even a global pandemic. Some might say it’s all the stronger for it. So how did all these crises shape school lunch? And is there any room to give our rectangle pizzas and frozen chicken patties a little grace?
CreditsHost: Alexis Pedrick Executive Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Associate Producer: Sarah Kaplan Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer Music by Blue Dot Sessions.
Resource List
1930s Farmer Talks About the Great Depression and Poverty. YouTube video. 1:54. Posted by Timeless Footage, March 10, 2020.
ABC Evening News. May 14, 1969. Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
CBS News. CBS Evening News. September 4, 1981. Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
CBS News. September 25, 1981. Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
C-SPAN. House Session, Part 1.
Daily School Meals During Coronavirus Closures. YouTube video. 4:59. CBS Sacramento.
Great Depression, Film Archives NYC. YouTube video. 6:46. Posted by Reel America, October 30, 2020.
Hunger in America. CBS News. "Hunger in America: The 1968 CBS Documentary That Shocked America."
Levine, Susan. School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America’s Favorite Welfare Program. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008.
Lunch Line. Directed by Michael Graziano and Ernie Park. Uji Films, 2010.
Mitman, Greg. YouTube video. 2:44. Posted January 13, 2023.
Mrs. Croft talks to parents about the need to provide hot lunch to students at a school in Pittsford, Vermont. Critical Past.
NBC News. December 21, 1981. Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
Nixon Addresses Hunger, 1969. YouTube video. 3:02. Posted by AP Archive, November 5, 2015.
Poppendieck, Janet. Free for All: Fixing School Food in America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
“Ronald Reagan on Big Government: ‘Government is the Problem.’” YouTube video, 0:15.
Ruis, Andrew R. Eating to Learn, Learning to Eat: The Origins of School Lunch in the United States. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2017.
“The Twisted History of School Lunch, Part 1.” Pressure Cooker. Podcast audio, 35:17. Hosted by Jane Black and Liz Dunn. Omny Studio, February 6, 2024.
Feeding kids a healthy lunch every school day is a feat of science and logistics. Molded into shape by nutrition scientists who wanted to optimize children’s health, the school lunch has endured war, economic depression, and even a global pandemic. Some might say it’s all the stronger for it. So how did all these crises shape school lunch? And is there any room to give our rectangle pizzas and frozen chicken patties a little grace?
CreditsHost: Alexis Pedrick Executive Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Associate Producer: Sarah Kaplan Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer Music by Blue Dot Sessions.
Resource List
1930s Farmer Talks About the Great Depression and Poverty. YouTube video. 1:54. Posted by Timeless Footage, March 10, 2020.
ABC Evening News. May 14, 1969. Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
CBS News. CBS Evening News. September 4, 1981. Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
CBS News. September 25, 1981. Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
C-SPAN. House Session, Part 1.
Daily School Meals During Coronavirus Closures. YouTube video. 4:59. CBS Sacramento.
Great Depression, Film Archives NYC. YouTube video. 6:46. Posted by Reel America, October 30, 2020.
Hunger in America. CBS News. "Hunger in America: The 1968 CBS Documentary That Shocked America."
Levine, Susan. School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America’s Favorite Welfare Program. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008.
Lunch Line. Directed by Michael Graziano and Ernie Park. Uji Films, 2010.
Mitman, Greg. YouTube video. 2:44. Posted January 13, 2023.
Mrs. Croft talks to parents about the need to provide hot lunch to students at a school in Pittsford, Vermont. Critical Past.
NBC News. December 21, 1981. Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
Nixon Addresses Hunger, 1969. YouTube video. 3:02. Posted by AP Archive, November 5, 2015.
Poppendieck, Janet. Free for All: Fixing School Food in America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
“Ronald Reagan on Big Government: ‘Government is the Problem.’” YouTube video, 0:15.
Ruis, Andrew R. Eating to Learn, Learning to Eat: The Origins of School Lunch in the United States. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2017.
“The Twisted History of School Lunch, Part 1.” Pressure Cooker. Podcast audio, 35:17. Hosted by Jane Black and Liz Dunn. Omny Studio, February 6, 2024.
Previous Episode
Science, Interrupted: Part 2
Genetic engineering breakthroughs in the late 1960s and early 1970s came with a lot of promise—and peril too. Fears about what could happen with recombinant DNA experiments put scientists in the middle of a moral dilemma. Did they have a responsibility to consider how others might use their work? Or was their place simply to be on the lab bench? In this two-part episode, we’ll share the story about the first time scientists stopped and considered the ramifications of their work, with a self-imposed moratorium. And we’ll explore all the controversy that led to the historic pivotal meeting at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in 1975 to determine the future of genetic engineering.
CreditsHost: Alexis Pedrick Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Associate Producer: Sarah Kaplan Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer Music by Blue Dot Sessions
Resource ListA Deep Conversation with Jon Beckwith: A History of Scientific and Social Activism. University of California Television. YouTube.
Berg, Paul. "Paul Berg Letter." Wellcome Collection. Chemical Heritage Foundation: The Emergence of Biotechnology. Science History Institute.
Cobb, Matthew. As Gods: A Moral History of the Genetic Age. New York: Basic Books, 2021. Cohen, Stanley N. Science, Biotechnology, and Recombinant DNA: A Personal History. UC Berkeley. DNA Learning Center. "Asilomar Meeting."
Genetic Dreams, Genetic Nightmares. BBC. Fredrickson, Donald S. Asilomar and Recombinant DNA: The End of the Beginning.
DNA: The Secret of Life. IMDb.
Jurassic Park. IMDb. Late 1960s-Early 1970s Anti-War Marches. YouTube.
"Letter from Maxine Singer and Dieter Söll to Philip Handler." Lear, John. Recombinant DNA: The Untold Story. Goodreads. Mukherjee, Siddhartha. The Gene: An Intimate History. Simon & Schuster. McElheny, Victor. Attempting the Impossible at Asilomar. McElheny, Victor. Gene Transplants Seen Helping Farmers and Doctors. The New York Times, May 20, 1974. Nova: The Gene Engineers. Dailymotion. Protein Synthesis: An Epic on the Cellular Level. YouTube.
Rejection of Science Worries American Scientists. The New York Times, April 5, 1970. Rogers, Michael. The Pandora’s Box Congress. Rolling Stone.
The Gene: PBS. PBS Learning Media. "The MacNeil/Lehrer Report: Genetic Engineering." American Archive of Public Broadcasting.
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