How Brands Like Domino's Profit From School Lunch

We hear a lot about

school

lunch

es in America, and the food itself doesn't always have the best reputation. When I think of

school

lunch

es, I think of boiled hamburgers. Cheese was always plastic. The more rancid it was, the more delicious it was. From Hollywood From skits to real-life memorabilia, the school cafeteria is a quintessential part of American culture. But who decides what food goes on the tray and why does one school serve this on a $25 budget while another does? Why teachers work at McDonald's overnight and how a slice of Domino's Pizza meets USDA guidelines. Those are all complicated questions with complicated answers, but if you really boil it down, the answer is money, lots and lots of money.

Today, the 4.9 billion lunches handed out in school cafeterias each year make up a multibillion-dollar industry that ensures millions of children are fed. It starts with federal money, but on its way to cafeterias, school districts have to mandate meals and food giants get a big slice of the school lunch pie. But before we get to all this The food fight sweeping school cafeterias, going from tray to trash Let's go back to the 19th century In 1853, the Children's Aid Society of New York started an informal lunch program for its vocational school, but it was not so. It wasn't until the 1930s that school lunches really caught on in the rest of the country.

Around the 1890s you see a real expansion and the role of schools and the community is when they really start to become social institutions and therefore in addition to basic education, we are also providing health services and a One of the things that happens when you know that doctors and nurses start working in schools, they start documenting all kinds of cases such as malnutrition. In 1935, Congress set aside money for school lunch programs. Not everyone in the community. supported government efforts to feed children during the day Restaurant owners sued school districts for loss of business Courts generally ruled in favor of school's right to operate cafeterias And by 1941, approximately six million children were eating government-provided food That food came from products that farmers had in excess, such as pork, dairy and wheat, a victory for both schools and farmers.

In the 1940s, the federal government passed the National School Lunch Act, making it possible to finance the programs predominantly with public money. National School Lunch Program in thousands of schools for millions of American children By then, other countries around the world had already developed their own school lunch systems. While the United States took the lead from European countries, there was one thing that made school lunches in the United States distinctly American, a touch of capitalism. The fundamental basis of school lunches was a kind of business model. They often adopted small tokens, like small coins, or used them as tickets of some kind that paying children would purchase and then the children would receive free lunches. they would give you the ticket but the idea is that you were exchanging something, there was a transaction Enter the school lunch lobby Today you have groups like the School Nutrition Association and the National School Boards Association advocating on behalf of schools At corporations like Tyson and PepsiCo show their faces at meetings to make sure their products are on the minds of school districts.

Meanwhile, groups like the Food Research Action Center and the Center on Budget and Priorities are keeping a close eye on nutrition. Robert Doar served as a commissioner under Mayor Bloomberg, where he administered food assistance. programs in New York City And he is no stranger to lobbying efforts in the world of government assistance. It is true that the interests here are not just what is best for low-income families, the other interests are the various food providers. This is true for anything. We do it in government, whenever the federal government spends a significant amount of dollars on a product, the people who sell that product will be interested in maximizing that spending.

In 1966, Congress passed the Child Nutrition Act expanding the school lunch program. In 1969, about 15% of children received their lunch for free or at a lower price. In fiscal year 2017, that number had increased to 73%. That meant millions of trays needed to be filled every day and that created a business opportunity. School lunch programs are really starting to work. stop cooking from scratch and opt for this type of food prepared in a factory, reheated and then served. And then came the funding fights that led to the infamous ketchup controversy. In 1981, the Reagan administration wanted to cut $1 billion in funding for school lunches.

To meet nutritional guidelines while staying on budget, the Department of Agriculture got creative and declared ketchup a vegetable. The backlash was so strong that the funding cut was quickly reversed, but ketchup hasn't been the only product that has expanded the definition of what it is. makes one vegetable Even today, some school pizza sauces count as one serving of vegetables. French fries are obviously made from potatoes and potatoes are a vegetable. That was another defeat that I would say the USDA experienced because of industry lobbying. Yes, French fries still count as a serving of vegetables. One vegetable, frozen potato slices are on the USDA's list of vegetables for child nutrition programs.

Those bags of frozen foods have to come from somewhere, which is where companies like Tyson come into play. The company, valued at more than $21 billion, saw the opportunity and Tyson acted. has its own K12 product catalog of frozen foods made just for school cafeterias. We reached out to Tyson for comment to see how much of its business comes from its k12 food products. The company did not respond and its K12

profit

s are not specified in its annual report, but frozen foods are not the only way to

profit

from school lunches. In 2014, the USDA came up with something called smart snacking guidelines, making the snack line healthier.

Which meant that if big food companies wanted to keep their products in schools they had to adapt. Now almost every major food manufacturer in the US has a catalog of products tailored to meet USDA standards. We felt like kids were being exposed to these

brands

, like Frito-Lay, and then going to the grocery store. store and I want to buy that brand and it is not the same product. We did a study where we actually put the two products side by side. Just by looking at that, it's very obvious that the companies didn't really make any effort to distinguish the one they were selling at school. versus the one you can buy in the store The product on the left labeled special edition is sold in schools, has 7 grams of sugar, vitamin C 25% The product on the right that is sold in stores has 10 grams of sugar, the vitamin C in this is only 10% And those custom-made foods are not just in the snack line.

Domino's has a special Smart Slice program with pizzas custom-made to meet USDA standards and the more pizzas schools purchase, the more reward points they accumulate. top These can be redeemed for Domino's products and even cafeteria equipment. Domino's told us, quote: "We are proud of our school lunch product. It meets the USDA guidelines for school nutrition standards and is something that kids love to eat. It's also good for schools because they find it simple to serve and keeps lunch participation rates high. He also said that schools choose whether to serve their pizza branded or unbranded. Remember that the SNA, one of the lobby groups on behalf of the schools, is on the list. as a smart slice partner And it's worth mentioning that Domino's, Tyson and other major food companies are SNA industry members, meaning they pay money for monthly newsletters announcing discounts and only local legislative contacts SNA said. , quote, While many schools are working to increase the number of freshly prepared and made-from-scratch menu items, those with limited equipment and workforce resources rely on healthy convenience foods to ensure students receive balanced meals every day.

Corporate money reaches far beyond the dining room. It makes its way into school sports. events and celebrations through fundraisers Think scoreboards, parking lot signs, and pizza parties or that summer reading program. Krispy Kreme also sponsors a major fundraising program and McDonald's has a McTeacher's Night fundraising program where teachers come to work the counter in the hopes that their children will come see them. School districts received a lot of criticism when Los Angeles ended the program entirely, but some schools still participate. Neither of those companies responded to our request for comment. So why do people care so much?

Schools need food and big businesses have it, but the rate of childhood obesity has more than tripled since the 1970s and with approximately 30 million children receiving their lunch thanks to a government-funded program, the question arises: What responsibility does the government have to make your meals healthy? In 2010, Michelle Obama led a major change. in the system with the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. We have an obligation to make sure those meals are as nutritious as possible. She reinforced nutrition guidelines for cafeterias across the country, requiring them to serve more fruits and vegetables. At first, her noble intentions. They were praised, but some took issue with how it actually played out in dining rooms across the country.

Children throw away food at about the same rate as the rest of the United States, but after the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, people started noticing it more. In the case of fruit, it increased significantly, but the same proportion was eaten and thrown away. So you eat more and throw away more. Schools seem to be stuck in the cycle of lack of funds, cooking training, and time. regulations, the menus actually come from schools locally. They are the ones who order and prepare the food and because it is decentralized, it is difficult to know which companies are making the most money and if the children are actually receiving quality meals.

But some people are trying to change that locally. Dan Giusti is the former head chef at Noma, where he created high-quality meals for hundreds of dollars per person. Now she runs a group called Brigade that works to bring home cooking, not just warming stations, to kitchens on a $1.25 budget And she's trying to change the reputation of school lunches entirely It's almost like it's this rite of passage, like if a student at an institution just what you get, you get lousy food. In May 2018, the Trump administration launched a rollback of some of the rules regarding whole grains, sodium, and flavored milks to give schools more flexibility in planning. of their meals.

The politics, money and controversy surrounding school lunches aren't going away. But at the end of the day, it's the kids who really make the impact. And for some, school lunches are the best meal they'll get all day. These children go to school every day but at home they don't eat and that makes you rethink everything, like holidays like the 3-day weekend. great But that means these kids don't eat for 3 days, or snow days. But that means that these children are not only not eating but are also at home in an environment that is probably not good for them.

Studies have shown that if children are fed, they do better in school, and with millions of children relying on free or low-cost lunches every day, it's a big and important problem to solve.