Why School Food Matters

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month and National School Lunch Week, Chef Ann Foundation Board Member David De La Rosa spoke with Latina leaders across the country about the critical role Latinos play in America’s school food system. From farm fields to cafeterias to advocacy at the policy level, their leadership is essential to feeding millions of children each day and shaping the future of school meals.

The Hungry Hand Who Feeds Us

Latinos power the food system, yet food insecurity continues to affect our communities. Today, 47 million people in the U.S. are food insecure, including nearly 14 million children. Four and a half million of those children are Latino. Latino children are twice as likely to face food insecurity than their white classmates. 

Food insecurity is not only about having enough to eat, it is also about access to healthy, nourishing food that supports growth, learning, and well-being. Many families are forced to rely on low-cost, highly processed foods because healthier options are out of reach.

Investment in healthy, scratch-cooked school food is a solution. For millions of children, it is the most reliable source of daily nutrition, and one of the most direct ways to fight hunger and support academic success. The positive impact is far-reaching and worthy of significant investment across the food system, including the workforce that sustains it.

Sindy Benavides, Founding Executive Director of Aquí, put it clearly: “Latinos play an interdependent role in the school food system, from cultivating and planting to the food that’s served on the plate. And culturally, we are people who nourish and give. It’s an organic fit.” The food system thrives when this leadership is visible and valued. 

Mothers at the Frontlines

Latina mothers are driving change in school food from the ground up. They push districts and policymakers to act, fighting for relevant, healthy meals and defending the programs that keep millions of children fed. Xochitl Oseguera, Vice President of MamásConPoder, works with mothers across the country to show them how to educate legislators, testify at school board meetings, collect signatures in support of universal school meals, and make issues such as food insecurity visible. For these mothers, advocacy is about more than nutrition. It is about health, identity, and stability. 

“When we have culturally relevant meals, kids feel proud of who they are. They see their culture not as intrusive but as belonging.” - Xochitl Oseguera, Vice President of MamásConPoder

Fear Shouldn’t Decide Who Eats

School food professionals bring essential knowledge to how school food works, from what children will eat to how cafeteria systems operate and how culture belongs on a lunch tray. 

Benavides spoke about how national rhetoric and shifting immigration policies have created a climate of fear. Some families avoid engaging with schools altogether. Oseguera described parents who hesitate to attend meetings or share information because of immigration raids and family separations. This fear reaches the cafeteria, influencing whether families feel safe filling out forms for free and reduced-price meals. 

A Future Built on Leadership

Food insecurity is a solvable issue, one that deserves every ounce of our collective effort to address. In a nation that grows more than enough food to nourish everyone, food access is not a matter of scarcity but of will and systems. Every child deserves to know where their next meal comes from and access to nutritious meals that fuel their learning, health, and growth. 

Making this vision a reality depends on systemic change and the people driving it, and Latino leadership is already at the forefront. Passionate leaders work across multiple fronts to ensure leadership is represented, resourced, and reflected in the systems that feed children. The Chef Ann Foundation works every day to transform school food through district-level support, comprehensive workforce training, and advocating for policies that ensure every child has access to healthy, scratch-cooked meals.

Links:

• Chef Ann Foundation

Our new policy roadmap outlines the Chef Ann Foundation’s issue priorities for increasing scratch cooking in schools; expanding access to healthy school meals; and unlocking the academic, environmental, economic, and social benefits scratch cooking offers children and communities. 

About Our Policy Roadmap

Today, nearly 70% of a typical child’s diet is made up of ultra-processed foods, which are associated with more than 30 health conditions. Many of these foods come from K–12 schools, which serve more than 30 million children breakfast and lunch every school day through the School Breakfast Program and National School Lunch Program. 

To protect and improve children’s health — and to access cascading academic, environmental, and economic benefits — schools must serve students more minimally processed meals cooked from scratch. While most schools want to serve their students more scratch-made meals, their ability to do so is significantly limited by systemic labor, financial, and infrastructure barriers, as well as public perceptions that devalue the critical role school food professionals play in supporting the well-being of our nation’s children.

Our new publication, The Scratch Cooking in Schools Solution: A Policy Roadmap for Boosting Children’s Health, Learning Outcomes, Environmental Sustainability, and Local Economies, outlines the Chef Ann Foundation’ policy priorities for increasing scratch cooking in schools; expanding access to healthy school meals; and unlocking the academic, environmental, economic, and social benefits scratch cooking offers children and communities.

Issue Priorities

Our policy issue priorities are organized according to the five key areas of school food operations: food, facilities, finances, human resources, and marketing. Policies should support school food programs in all of these five key areas to achieve lasting solutions toward improving the quality of school food. You can learn more about all of the policy priorities outlined below in our roadmap. 

Food

• Reduce Ultra-Processed Foods: We are advocating for developing a formal definition for ultra-processed foods, and passing the Scratch Cooked Meals for Students Act.
• Use Cleaner Ingredients: We are advocating for better regulating additives in school foods, and passing the federal Safe School Meals Act.
• Procure More Local, Regional, and Values-Aligned Ingredients: We are advocating for increasing farm-to-school and local food for schools funding; establishing a permanent USDA local procurement program; prioritizing purchasing U.S.-sourced protein and produce; removing requirements for awarding contracts to the lowest bidder; and passing the Farm to School Act, Local School Foods Expansion Act, and Local Procurement Act.
• Reduce Food and Packing Waste: We are advocating for creating a USDA grant program that helps schools implement food waste measurement, prevention, education, and reduction projects; and passing the School Food Recovery Act.
• Serve More Plant-Forward Meals: We are advocating for creating a grant program that helps schools serve more plant-forward meals; and passing the federal Healthy Future Students and Earth Pilot Program Act.
• Diversify and Demystify Federal School Food Purchasing: We are advocating for accurately tracking and publicly disclosing comprehensive food supply chain data for USDA Foods and the USDA Department of Defense Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (USDA DoD Fresh).

Facilities

• Update School Kitchen Infrastructure and Equipment: We are advocating for offering more kitchen infrastructure and equipment grants to schools; and passing the School Food Modernization Act.

Finances

• Provide Free Meals to All Students: We are advocating for passing state and federal universal free school meals legislation (Healthy School Meals for All).
• Remove a Barrier to Participating in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP): We are advocating for increasing the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) multiplier from 1.6 to 2.5.
• Increase School Meal Reimbursement Rates: We are advocating for increasing school breakfast reimbursement by 28 cents; increase school lunch reimbursement by 45 cents; and reviewing and, if needed, adjusting meal reimbursement rates annually.

Human Resources

• Expand Federally Registered Healthy School Food Apprenticeship Programs: We are advocating for expanding the federally registered Healthy School Food Pathway apprenticeship program to all states; and investing in school food workforce training.
• Fairly Compensate School Food Professionals: We are advocating for increasing wages and benefits for school food professionals through a portion of proposed increases for federal meal reimbursement rates; providing affordable health coverage for school food professionals; offering stipends to school food professionals for completing comprehensive training programs and remaining in the school food workforce; and passing the federal SCHOOL Professionals Act.
• Recognize the Lunchroom as a Space for Learning: We are advocating for designating meal time as curriculum time for learning positive eating habits for a healthy life; and recognizing that school food professionals can be an integral part of the education system.

Marketing

• Rebrand School Food Jobs: We are advocating for executing campaigns that seek to positively shift perceptions about the school food workforce and demonstrate the inherent value of these roles in shaping the health of our children and nation.

Learn More

Learn more about all of the issue priorities outlined above in our policy roadmap. If you have questions about the Chef Ann Foundation’s policy and advocacy work, contact policy@chefannfoundation.org. 

Links:

• View our Policy Roadmap