Course:LFS250/Week 19

Overview

In this session, we will discuss institutional and school food systems. This week’s topic is particularly important as it will help shape your understanding of the food literacy workshop that you will conduct as a group later this term. In tutorial, you will continue to prepare for your workshop.

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

• Identify components of a school food system
• Articulate how school food systems interact with regional and global food systems
• Reflect on the multifunctionality of school food systems
• Relate the development of food literacy to school food systems

Key Terms + Concepts

• Institutional food systems
• School food systems

Required Readings + Resources

• Rojas, A., Black, J., Orrego, E., Chapman, G., & Valley, W. (2017). Insights from the Think&EatGreen@ School Project: How a community-based action research project contributed to healthy and sustainable school food systems in Vancouver. Canadian Food Studies/La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation, 4(2), 25-46.

Institutional Food Systems

Hospitals, universities, school districts and municipal governments all have food systems. These big institutional food systems can play a significant role in determining regional food environments which, in turn, can impact household food environments, and individual food choices. At UBC in 2014, there were almost 52,000 enrolled students. The university houses upwards of 10,000 students who all eat their meals on campus throughout the year. That is a lot of food prepared and consumed in campus facilities. This one institution, alone, depending on the values held by the institution and the food service managers and employees, and the demands of the consumers/students, can greatly influence the regional food system. What if all universities across Canada chose to serve delicious, whole-foods that are sustainably produced? What if all hospitals did the same? Public schools across Canada? What if North American institutions did this? It is easy to see how the market would shift to meet the demands of consumers; or in this case, large institutions. This can be built into regional and national policy and is often referred to as “structured demand”.

School Food Systems

Schools have the potential to have a significant impact on the food system for a number of reasons:

School-aged children around the world spend a significant amount of their day at school. This is really a ‘captive’ audience of children and youth who are in the midst of shaping their ideas and ways of knowing. Teaching about the food system early on and across school years can potentially lead to a society of food citizens that will have the knowledge and skills to demand a sustainable, healthy and just food system regionally and globally. In Canada, household food insecurity affects 1 in 6 children, meaning that many children and youth come to school hungry, which can affect behaviour and academic performance (Boschloo et al., 2012; Nyaradi et al., 2014; Olson, 1999; St. Leger, Kolbe, Lee, McCall, & Young, 2007; Taras, 2005). The following video demonstrates the challenges and social stigma of being hungry in a classroom setting.

VIDEO: Orange. Diane Chartrand, 1992, 4 min 52 s.

In this animated film, a group of schoolchildren are amazed to discover that one of their classmates does not have enough to eat. With the help of their teacher, the children come to understand that his hardship affects them all and that the fight against poverty requires solidarity and sharing.

While in school, students consume upwards of 30% of their daily caloric intake (Briefel et al., 2009) meaning there is significant amounts of food passing through hallways on any given day. Some food is brought from home, some is purchased from external sources, some is purchased from vending machines, school stores, cafeterias, fundraisers, at sports days, and some food is provided by the government to address food insecurity among children. School food systems are diverse and vast, especially in Canada where there is no one body that oversees school food.

• Jamie Oliver. 2010. Teach Every Child About Food. This TED talk by world famous chef, Jamie Oliver, is about why he thinks school food systems need to be addressed.
  

Tutorial Session

In your tutorial session, you will have time to refine your food literacy workshop lesson plan in preparation for your second school visit.

Additional Material

• In this TED Talk, international school feeding programs are discussed as a powerful means to address issues of world hunger.