This book delves into the heated political battles over what kids eat at school, shedding light onto how policymakers craft food policy for schools. The book takes readers inside schools, through the history of school food programs in the United States and England, and into the policy terrain that makes school lunch difficult to change.

Chapter 1: In School Food, the Political is Personal.- Chapter 2: The Whys and Hows of School Food in America.- Chapter 3: Conservative Resistance to Progressive Incrementalism: The Political Terrain of School Food in America.- Snack 3: The Pancake That Never Spoils.- Chapter 4: Conservative Talk: The Techniques for Dismantling Faith in School Food.- Chapter 5: A Canary in the Mine: School Food Reform in England.- Chapter 6: Rethinking School Food: Innovative Programs and a Progressive Vision.

This book delves into the heated political battles over what kids eat at school, shedding light onto how policymakers craft food policy for schools. The book takes readers inside schools, through the history of school food programs in the United States and England, and into the policy terrain that makes school lunch difficult to change. Through diverse case studies—hungry linebackers, pink slime, English reality television and policy making, pizza as a vegetable, lunch shaming, and more—chapters provide detailed analysis of rhetorical tactics, arguments over, and policy for school feeding. The book concludes with a progressive vision of school food that is healthy, pleasurable, educative, shame-free, and, most importantly, free for all students, just like the rest of school.

Marcus B. Weaver-Hightower is Professor of Foundations of Education at Virginia Tech.  He was previously professor of Educational Foundations and Research at the University of North Dakota and Fulbright grantee to Australia.  He is author of How to Write Qualitative Research, The Politics of Policy in Boys’ Education, and several collections.

“Unpacking School Lunch is a wonderfully written, fresh, original, and utterly compelling account of what advocates are up against in getting schools to serve healthier, more sustainable meals to kids.  This book is an absolute must-read for anyone who cares about what kids eat, not least for Weaver-Hightower’s remarkably astute analysis of conservative opposition to improving school food.”

—Marion Nestle, author and Professor Emerita of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, New York University, USA

“This insightful and eloquently written account of school food pays important attention to the social, political, and economic dimensions of educational policy which must not be seen as separate to school food and policy reform. A must read for scholars, advocates, and educational leaders with interests in issues of social justice and food in schools."

—Gurpinder Lalli, Reader in Education for Social Justice and Inclusion, University of Wolverhampton, UK, and author of Schools, Food and Social Learning

“From a founder of critical food studies in education, this book leads us to think about the politics and economics of midday eating while learning. School lunch is no longer as understudied as before this book. Weaver-Hightower deepens his previous work on school food by considering the intersecting factors in the line of food production, but also how school food has a hidden curriculum and a hidden politics. For as he states, ‘Wherever you sit in the complex ecology that school food inhabits, you participate in the politics of food."

—AG Rud, Distinguished Professor, Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education, Washington State University, USA, and co-editor of Educational Dimensions of School Lunch: Critical Perspectives