In 1962, President John F. Kennedy created National School Lunch Week (NSLW) as a way to celebrate the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Today, 95% of schools and over 30 million children participate in the NSLP and receive healthy and affordable lunches. NSLW continues to recognize the benefits of the NSLP and the hard working food service staff that make school lunch happen each and every day.
In 2015 NSLW occurs during the week of October 12-16. The theme for the celebration was “School Lunch Snapshot”, and the School Nutrition Association (SNA) is encouraging its members to take and share photos that highlight the positive changes to school lunches. These changes include more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, in addition to limits on calories and fat.
In addition to sharing photos of school lunch trays, SNA provided a number of ways to engage students, parents, and schools in NSLW. These included informational handouts for parents, activities for students, and ideas for school nutrition and food service staff.
Individuals followed or contributed to the social media campaign by using the hashtag #NSLW and #NSLW2015 on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
For more information and ideas on how to celebrate NSLW, visit the following SNA resources:
Contributor
Katherine Greene, MPH, Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs