Media Center

      Changing the way America grows its food and eats will be a big and long-term job, but without a doubt the best way to start is by reforming school lunch. No other point of leverage could do quite as much to improve the health of our children and, if schools are encouraged to source food locally, the health of local farming. "

Marion Nestle, PhD
Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies,
and Public Health
New York University, Steinhart School

      School lunch isn’t just about the food. It’s also about what food means in culture and communities. A good school lunch program teaches kids that food matters—how it’s produced, what gets done with it, and how it is consumed. These are important lessons that ought to be in every curriculum. "

Kelly Brownell, PhD
Co-founder and Director
Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity
Yale University

      Few things are more important to the nation's diet than what happens in schools."

Chef Tim Cipriano
Executive Director of Food Services
New Haven Public Schools

      Despite its devastating and highly visible consequences, childhood hunger is invisible. In my position I see hungry children every day. We need the support of Congress to feed these hungry children! These children rely on school meals as their ONLY nutrition of the day. We need to see systematic change."

Chef Ann Cooper
"The Renegade Lunch Lady"

      It should be a birthright of all children in America to have a delicious/nutritious lunch everyday. We must make our children's health our number one priority by making their healthy school lunch part of their life-long wellness."

Robyn O'Brien
Author, The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It

      Today, 1 in 3 American children has allergies, ADHD, autism or asthma, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reporting stunning increases in the number of children expected to be insulin dependent by the time they reach adulthood. With 17.6% of our GDP being consumed by health costs, there is an urgent need to address the health of our children and the impact that this generation of children is having on our country, our families and our health care system. As a mother of four, with a background in finance, I am profoundly grateful for Slow Food USA™'s Time for Lunch Campaign and the Child Nutrition Act and invite parents around the country to support this important effort, as together, we can affect remarkable change."

Debbie Lehmann
Editor, Schoolunchtalk.com

      There is growing consensus that the American diet is unsustainable - both for our health and for the planet. We have an opportunity to change that. Every day, 50 million public school students walk into a cafeteria and eat lunch in an educational setting. Let's give them real food. Let's raise a generation of healthy, sustainable American eaters."

Zenobia Barlow
Co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for Ecoliteracy

      Getting real food in schools is a triple-winning strategy. Fresh, healthy food benefits children’s health, their academic performance, and the environment. It also opens up an exciting new doorway to schooling for sustainability. The Center for Ecoliteracy applauds Slow Food USA’s Time for Lunch campaign."