School Lunches Featured in NY Times Photo Essay

In the August 1, 2004, New York Times photo-essay, “Lunch Is Served: Putting Pizza on the Table at the Country’s Largest District,” Abby Ellin traces the origins of New York City’s school pizza—from the farm to the table. She points out that the cheese is made locally and then donated through the National School Lunch Program. She makes note that the school lunches also offer foods such as green salad, apples, pears and bananas. This high-profile attention to the origin and healthiness school food is part of a larger body of evidence supporting the fact that New York grantees like the Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship, the Community Food Resource Center, the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, Food and Society Fellows, and others are changing how institutional food buyers and the media value school food. What was once only viewed as a commodity is now being seen in a much greater context.