Public School Lunches- Pitch 1

   What is the trouble?

 I remember an experience in middle school. I ate a chicken noodle goulash that was very questionable, but I was hungry. It made me throw up on the school bus while headed to a track meet. It was the worst experience. I want to talk about a few good and bad school lunch options I had available at the time I was in public school. I want to take a closer look at how far school lunches have come since then or if they are still lacking in nutrition quality. I want to examine the budget and research funding restrictions and why the quality is less than satisfactory. I will ask two individuals how they feel and ask what their worst school lunch meal was and approximately what year that was. I could ask an older individual, as well as a person still in middle school or high school.

Comments

  1. BballengerMarch 12, 2018 at 12:41 PM

    This is a really interesting idea! Who doesn't remember cafeteria eating in middle and high school? For me, though, the food was a sideshow to the awkward social interactions. Would I find someone to sit with? Where was I in relation to Lori Jo Flink? Did I look stupid when I ate? So one possibility is to go out and find lunchroom stories that may or may not be about how horrible (or wonderful?) the food was. To start with, you might just go out and collect a lot of tape on this, and they see how the story takes shape. I'll bet there would be some volunteers in class!

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  2. UnknownMarch 12, 2018 at 1:08 PM

    I think this is a great topic. There are so many different ways you can go with it. For instance, I personally feel that--at least on paper--kids who are in high school now have better food choices than I did when I was in school. And people come to college from all over the country, so there are probably both commonalities and differences for people who come from another part of the country. Does the school lunch problem persist even in other countries? You have endless approaches; I think BB is right, that you could simply get people talking about their school lunch experiences and let the tape guide you.

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  3. UnknownMarch 12, 2018 at 1:31 PM

    I love this idea! As a person who moved from Montana to Idaho when i was in elementary school the experience of school lunches was completely different. That might be something to consider as well, see if you can find someone who grew up in a different state and see if there is a difference or not. Also i am so sad about your childhood experience, that's terrible! At least you have something really unique to write about.

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  4. UnknownMarch 13, 2018 at 6:49 AM

    I feel like the infiltration of school lunches by huge farm lobbies is a viable direction to take this piece. Like, kids do not need the huge amounts of bread, milk, cheese, and meat available in school lunches, but they are still included in the lunches because of huge marketing pushes by these huge farm lobbies. Basically, I have a chip on my shoulder about school lying to me saying milk was a health necessity, and I want someone to be angry with me :)

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