Adequate Time for Lunch in Seattle Public Schools
Creators: name: Alnajjar, Kristina
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2013

description: Seattle Public Schools (SPS) is the largest school district in the state of Washington. Located in King County and situated between the Shoreline School District (to the north) and Tukwila School District (to the south), SPS serves more than 51,000 students and employs more than 2,900 teachers. There are 69 elementary schools, and an additional 20 secondary (middle or high) schools. SPS has a diverse student population: 44% White, 13% Hispanic, 18% Black, 18% Asian/Pacific Islander and 18% Asian. Thirty-nine percent of students qualify for Free or Reduced (F/R) Priced Meals. Applications to qualify are provided in Amharic, Chinese, English, Oromo, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Tigrigna, and Vietnamese to accommodate the district’s diversity. To qualify for free or reduced priced meals, a family of four must have a yearly gross income of less than $43,500. At SPS schools with exceptionally high percentages (80% or above) of F/R eligibility, breakfast is provided free of charge for any child. All students in SPS who qualify for free or reduced priced meals (F/R eligibility) receive breakfast and lunch free of charge. In December 2010, the US Congress and President Obama passed the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 setting into motion major changes in the meal pattern and food available to students through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National School Lunch Program (NSLP). The new guidelines set limits on calories and salt, included more whole grains, and required that students take fruits and/or vegetables at both breakfast and lunch. Nutrition Services at SPS has been proactive and thorough in meeting new governmental and nutritional standards. For instance, Nutrition Services provides students in the district with locally sourced, rBST hormone-free milk, in both low fat and fat free varieties. Nutrition Services has worked with local dairies for more than five years to reformulate chocolate milk for schools with less sugar, a step that some districts are only recently beginning. Nutrition Services also serves students with a variety of locally sourced fruits and vegetables, and many culturally/regionally appropriate dishes such as homemade hummus, fish tacos and vegetarian chili. In recent years they have also implemented a range of innovative programs designed to improve student food behaviors and nutrition, including partnering with local chefs (e.g., the Tom Douglas Restaurant Group), supporting breakfast campaigns, hosting Top Chef-style cooking competitions, promoting Harvest of the Month Produce programs, and introducing salad bars in most of the schools. Problem: Despite these positive programming changes, SPS parents have recently raised the concern that students are not receiving sufficient time to eat. Families are reporting that they are no longer participating in the school meal program due to decreased seated time to eat (seat time). If a student brings lunch from home, he/she can begin eating immediately without having to stand in line for lunch. Therefore, it is a concern for Nutrition Services at SPS that both families who are paying for lunches and families who would qualify for F/R lunch are choosing to opt out of the NSLP in order to ensure their children have adequate time to eat. Insufficient time to eat gives rise to two major problems: (1) Under nourished students, which is nutritionally problematic as students may not reach learning potential without proper nourishment during the school day and, (2) under participation in the NSLP, which is economically problematic as SPS has the ability and capacity to feed many more students than it is currently serving.