school lunch

Amelia, a 5-year-old student at Oakville Elementary School, socializes during lunch in March at the school in Oakville, Mo. Kids who eat school meals tend to have a healthier diet.

Schools ended universal free lunch. Now meal debt is soaring

3:15pm May 03, 2023

by Kate Grumke

Across the country, schools are reporting rising cafeteria debt, and fewer kids are enrolling in their free and reduced price programs. Many states are moving to make meals free for all kids again.

A seventh grader carries her plate of three-bean chili, rice, mandarins and cherry tomatoes and baked chips during her lunch break at a local public school, on Feb. 10 in the Brooklyn borough of New York.

A new study offers hints that healthier school lunches may help reduce obesity

1:55pm February 15, 2023

by The Associated Press

The national study found a small but significant decline in the average BMI of more than 14,000 schoolkids after implementation of a 2010 federal law that boosted nutrition standards for school meals.

Nutritionist Shaunté Fields (center) and bus driver Treva White (behind Fields, on the bus) deliver meals to children and their families in Seattle. When schools closed because of COVID-19, Seattle Public Schools began distributing breakfast and lunch to

Millions of children will miss healthy school meals when pandemic relief expires

4:24pm March 21, 2022

by Allison Aubrey

A boost in funds and flexibility in how food is prepared and packaged was a lifeline for kids coping with hunger. But these measures, passed in response to COVID-19, expire in June, with no extension.

Derek Amato became a musical savant after a traumatic accident.

Arts

You 2.0: Fresh Starts

1:02pm August 21, 2020

Unpredictable things happen to us all the time. As part of our annual You 2.0 series on personal growth and reinvention, we revisit two of our favorite stories of loss and the change it brings.

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Some Guilford County Schools Workers Will See Pay Raise During COVID-19 Pandemic

11:50am March 30, 2020

by Neal Charnoff

Some Guilford County Schools employees who are providing critical services during the coronavirus pandemic will soon see a pay increase.

Justin Ruben of ParentsTogether speaks on Thursday at a press conference organized to deliver 1.5 million petitions to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The petitions are protesting proposed changes to the food stamps program that would also affect the

Activists Protest USDA Changes That Threaten Free School Lunch

6:12pm November 14, 2019

by Maria Godoy

Activists delivered a petition with 1.5 million signatures to the agency in an effort to stop a rule change that would end automatic enrollment in free school lunch for nearly 1 million kids.

Education

Guilford County District Considers School Lunch Policy Change

3:19pm November 11, 2019

by Associated Press

A North Carolina school system is considering a policy change that would prevent high school students from being denied a meal because they can't afford it.

Education

Donor Erases School Lunch Debt For High Point Students

7:15am August 15, 2019

by Paul Garber

Some local parents will be sending their kids back to school with a sense of relief after a donation erased their school lunch debts.

Students in New York fill their lunch trays with hot food. In Rhode Island, a controversy over a plan to limit children to cold sandwiches if they had outstanding lunch balances was quickly reversed this week.

After Backlash, Rhode Island School District Rolls Back 'Lunch Shaming' Policy

7:06pm May 10, 2019

by Vanessa Romo

Warwick Public Schools reversed its decision to bar students with delinquent debt from access to hot lunch meals after it was met with anger. An outpouring of donations has since erased the debts.

The mother of Philando Castile has given an $8,000 gift to a Minnesota high school to alleviate school lunch debt. Castile, a school cafeteria supervisor, was fatally shot by a police officer during a traffic stop.

National

Philando Castile's Mother Wipes Out School Lunch Debt, Continuing Son's Legacy

9:50pm May 07, 2019

by Shannon Van Sant

Valerie Castile's $8,000 gift to a Minnesota high school wiped out lunch debts for about 100 students. Her son, a cafeteria worker who often bought lunch for needy kids, was killed by police in 2016.

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