location

New York City, New York

DATEs

November, 2021

organization(s)

Edible Schoolyard NYC

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Edible Schoolyard NYC partners with public schools in New York City to cultivate healthy students and communities by integrating food education into school curriculums to help students live and eat well from a young age. By touring their campus in East Harlem, my aim was to learn how this project acts as a model for a sustainable food system.

1.

The current National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is riddled with false information and administrative barriers, leading to challenges around distribution; what is served at schools is rarely reflective of what is nutritious; rather, it is decided by agricultural lobbying, interest groups, and large corporations with money and power.

2.

While 95% of public schools participate in the government-subsidized program (in the US), oftentimes, the students who need food the most are unable to acquire it without the stigma of participating in the free or reduced lunch program. 

3.

As the NSLP acts as a dumping ground for unhealthy commodities subsidized by the USDA, the nation's schoolchildren are consequently fed mainly by overproduced agricultural commodities—including highly-processed, unhealthy food that contributes to rising rates of childhood obesity.