Hunger and Fullness: How High-Poverty Urban Students Experience School Food Policy

Abstract

The issue of school food and its role in the learning environment has been overlooked by educators, education researchers, and policy makers. This study uses observations and interviews in three high-poverty, urban schools to investigate how participants experience school food policy in their daily lives. Participants at all three schools believed that addressing hunger and malnutrition by offering fresh and healthy foods helped to improve student engagement in class. This research contributes an ethnographic understanding of student experiences with food in schools and builds on various literatures regarding whole child reforms, childhood food insecurity, student engagement, and school food environments.

Keywords

urban education poverty social school lunch policy student engagement community schools whole child reforms

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