Below are several sources we reviewed to gain insight into the situation. Sources range from peer-reviewed, scholarly works to qualitative news articles and online data repositories.
How New York’s Schoolchildren Got Their French Toast Sticks Back
This source from the New York Times describes the reversal of budget cuts for New York City public school food items in 2024. Mayor Adams planned to cut approximately $60 million from DOE food programs, but the decision was reversed after public disparagement. The article includes several primary sources from New York City students describing the importance of public school food and specifically a good lunch, which helped us describe the emotional appeal of a quality food program.
New York City’s public school system goes meat-free on Fridays
This article talks about the transition to a more vegan public school nutritional diet brought over by Mayor Adams. The move to more vegan lunches aims to reduce waste, and carbon emissions, and promote healthier eating habits to a student body in which obesity is on the rise. The change was not well received by everyone, with some parents and students claiming a political aspect is involved with the changes in food. Some students also disapproved of the new vegan foods due to subjective reasons. We used this article to discuss current changes to the New York City public school food system and the reasoning behind it.
What New York City Schools Learned Feeding Millions During the Pandemic
This article discusses the challenges that the New York City public school system faces whilst feeding thousands of children during the pandemic. The article also describes several new initiatives regarding food policy and quality that were implemented during the pandemic and are still in action today. The article also proposes a direct link between food quality and availability to academic performance and student health. We used this article to further develop proposed changes to the school food system and also emphasize the importance of collaboration between schools and governments in the case of providing a steady supply of quality food.
Ten Years of Food Policy Governance in New York City: Lessons for the Next Decade
This is a peer-reviewed source that examines New York City food public policy changes from the past decade, and how that information can be analyzed and further used to help policymakers in the future. This source gave us insight into the policy changes that we proposed after analyzing results about food quality. Although the article mostly focuses on overall public policy rather than just public school food changes, it is still important when considering how policies change public food’s nutrition benchmarks and quality.
NYCDOE 2023 Public Data
This is a spreadsheet directly from the New York City Department of Education that displays the results of the 2023 student school survey. Specifically, the data concerning student assessment of meal quality was the most relevant information of the study, since the differences in food quality satisfaction could then be used to link to financial, regional, and other demographic differences. It was also very helpful that the DOE included a survey archive, meaning it was possible to compare the differences between food quality satisfaction from the previous year back to 2007. The spreadsheet also contains replies to other important questions regarding academia, and iterations of the survey that pertain to parents and teachers can also be accessed via this source.
Other Literature Sources
Click on the arrow to the left of each source to learn basic information about each piece.
A Menu for Health: Changes to New York City School Food, 2001 to 2011
A peer-reviewed source that describes how New York City altered school meal policies during the early 2000s to combat growing obesity concerns.
Menu Nutrition Information – Food
This source is a section of the NYC DOE website that provides comprehensive information about school meal policies in New York City.
Moldy Fruit, Spoiled Schmear, ‘Mushy Paste’: Lawmaker Raises Flag About NYC School Food
This is a source from NBC that describes the quality of the food present in some schools in New York City.
Pizza, Plum Cake and Pickled Red Onion: How School Lunches Look Across Europe
This article discusses the variety of free food options in different countries in Europe.
School Food Policies and Practices in New York City Public Schools
This peer-reviewed source describes the changes brought about by the HHFK Act to New York City Public School’s nutritional standards.
Overarching themes
Most of the press articles we used showed public disapproval regarding food quality and recent changes to the food system. They had primary sources of public opinion on food quality and stressed the importance of listening to individuals.
The peer-reviewed sources provided comprehensive information on recent food policy changes from a legal standpoint and also highlighted the importance of high nutritional standards as well as its benefits on academic performance and student morale. However, the scholarly sources also allowed us to understand the difficulties of effective food policies; difficulties ranged from ethical concerns to a lack of human capital experience to provide consistent food quality levels.