School Food Culture & Environment
Every student in early childhood education and K–12 schools in Oregon has access to eating environments that build community and promote awareness and curiosity.
Foods reflect cultural food traditions of students and communities in the district and expose students to global food cultures.
Background
Beyond increasing access to Oregon foods, school cafeterias and other settings for eating, and the meals served in them, offer powerful opportunities for children to learn and experience a sense of belonging in their school community.
This area of work captures goals and strategies that encourage Child Nutrition Programs and school leaders to invest in settings for eating as places where students experience the joy and power of food on a daily basis. We encourage treating eating spaces like classrooms and unlocking opportunities for students to connect their meal experiences to lessons in the classroom and garden.
The places where students eat meals can also be places where students build social-emotional skills by trying new things and experiencing the joy of eating in a community. This area of work also recognizes the importance of centering student voice and choice in menu design and the role families and caregivers should play in designing the school meal experience.
When schools serve foods that affirm students’ culture and identities, such as by including foods that they eat at home, school cafeterias become places of belonging and connection. Early childhood education sites and school districts need feedback mechanisms to ensure that families' and caregivers’ input shapes school meals.
Our Strategic Approach
Strategy #1
Elevate student and family voice in shaping school food culture and meal program offerings, and meal environments.
SAMPLE APPROACHES
- Train nutrition service staff and educators on culturally flexible feedback mechanisms for sites and districts to ensure that families and caregivers have a voice in the school food culture, food offerings, and the meal environment.
- Provide technical assistance on implementing age-appropriate student engagement in school food culture and environment.
- Provide districts with tools and best practices for incorporating student voice and choice into meal programs.
Strategy #2
Create school meal experiences and environments that support health and wellness for all students.
SAMPLE APPROACHES
- Ensure sufficient meal time to eat in spaces that nourish the whole child.
- Design the cafeteria/kitchen with consideration for how it feels, looks, sounds, and smells.
- Incorporate practices to help reduce food waste.
- Support sites and districts to access state and federal funding streams that support cafeteria design.
- Train administrators, educators, and nutrition services staff on the importance of and methods for eliminating the stigma around eating school meals for students.
- Engage youth and adults to model curiosity and willingness to try foods.
- Train nutrition services staff on increasing cultural flexibility, including awareness of and curiosity about the role of culture and ethnicity in students' food choices.
- Encourage sites to schedule recess before lunch.
Progress Indicators
Ways Child Nutrition Programs promote local foods in school cafeterias:
Ways that Child Nutrition Programs engage and educate their communities about farm to school and local foods:
BRIGHT SPOTS
From Finance Executive to School Food Innovator: Krishna Bhattarai Brings Global Flavors to Oregon Cafeterias
How Molalla High School’s Culture Club Transformed 1,000 Students Through Oregon’s 500th School Garden
Umatilla School District Increases Lunch Participation with Student-Driven Menu Featuring Traditional Pozole
Oregon Educators Learn Traditional Foods Curriculum Through 10-Month Indigenous Plant Teaching Cohort
We want to celebrate and share all the amazing Farm to School work in Oregon. Whether you're a teacher connecting students with their food, a nutrition director sourcing local ingredients, or a community member supporting school gardens, your story matters and deserves to be shared.