{"id":29856,"date":"2024-08-29T11:05:04","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T15:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=29856"},"modified":"2024-09-12T11:42:53","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T15:42:53","slug":"fueling-the-return-to-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2024\/08\/29\/fueling-the-return-to-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Fueling the Return to School"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lindsay Franz<\/em> ~<\/p>\n

\"Overhead<\/a>
Girls Eat Lunch in School, n.d.
National Library of Medicine #101448433<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Good nutrition<\/a> is key to learning. The cognitive benefits of food, along with social interaction, suggest the importance of a nutritional lunch during the school day. In these photographs from NLM Digital Collections, the positivity is beaming from the children as they take a break from academics and enjoy a meal with their classmates. A nutritional lunch is, on its own, an education, teaching children the proper way to nourish their bodies. This lesson is as important as learning math, reading, and writing, and has been a topic of interest to educators for many generations.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Boys in a School Cafeteria, n.d.
National Library of Medicine #101448427<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1941 John E. Coxe, the Louisiana State Superintendent of Education, said \u201chungry and malnourished children cannot make normal grade progress; therefore, the school-lunch program can make a valuable contribution to both physical and mental development of children, and at the same time bring about greater efficiency in the use of public-school funds.\u201d \u00a0The bulletin Suggestions for Improving Health and Nutrition through the School Lunch Program in Louisiana<\/a><\/em> described the need for and steps taken to provide students with both proper nutrition and education on nutritional meals. Dr. Thomas Parran, Surgeon General of the United States, said \u201cIt is a waste of public funds to try to teach hungry children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Suggestions for Improving Health and Nutrition Through the School Lunch Program in Louisiana<\/em><\/a>, 1941
National Library of Medicine #08630310R<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The National Library of Medicine has digitized A\u00a0Public Health and Welfare Technical Bulletin<\/em><\/a> from Tokyo, published in 1948. The bulletin discusses the success of government funded midday lunch and then a need of more support for government funded lunches post WWII. “A member of the Hoover Food Commission visiting Japan in the Spring of 1946 indicated interest in the redevelopment of the school lunch program and gave valuable suggestions as to how the program might be re-instituted.\u201d \u00a0As a result, Japan began providing a more nutritious midday lunch to their students. They had been providing a mainly rice based diet but found the children were lacking nutrients. The Japanese government began to provide skim milk, stew, and vegetables. As a result of the increase in protein and calcium, an increase in weight was seen across the board.<\/p>\n

The Hoover Food Commission enacted in Japan was one of many Hoover established around the world. Herbert Hoover was known for his work tackling food disparities before during and after his presidency. Under President Wilson, Hoover served as the U.S. food administrator<\/a>, and boosted food production and promoted food conservation. \u00a0His food commissions promoted and regulated school lunches throughout the United States and the world.<\/p>\n

\"Text <\/a>
Supplementary School Lunch Program, 1948 National Library of Medicine #101709949 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
Average Weight of Primary School Children in Thirty-Three Urban Schools in Japan: 1937-1947, in Supplementary School Lunch Program, 1948 National Library of Medicine #101709949 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Information <\/a>
Types of Meals Served and Representative Menus, in Supplementary School Lunch Program, 1948 National Library of Medicine #101709949 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

In the below image from NLM Digital Collections, you can see a well-balanced lunch the students are about to eat. Milk, fruit, protein, and carbohydrates all appear on the plate of each child. This kind of access to a healthy lunch set the youth up for success, giving them the strength and focus to navigate a school day and receive the information they are taught.<\/p>\n

\"Young<\/a>
School Lunch, n.d.
National Library of Medicine #101448837<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today the federal government continues to provide resources to combat food insecurities in the United States. The USDA\u2019s Focus on Nutrition Security (FNS) program serves 1 in 4 Americans over the course of a year<\/a>. The FNS was established in 1969 and has increased the reach of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). As of 2016, 30.4 million children have participated in the NSLP program<\/a>. FNS also provides training and technical assistance to school nutrition professionals who then educate their students on healthy nutritional meals. The USDA Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program introduces fresh produce to children who with limited access to such options. The goal of ensuring healthy food and nutritional literacy for the youth of America continues today.<\/p>\n

\"Boys<\/a>
Children On the Way to School ca. 1940
National Library of Medicine #101448399<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Formal<\/a>Lindsay Franz is a librarian in the User Services and Collection Division at the National Library of Medicine.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lindsay Franz ~ Good nutrition is key to learning. The cognitive benefits of food, along with social interaction, suggest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19605840,"featured_media":29884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12763,4940351,347145303],"tags":[22379,106484,586,678875986,2832,668],"class_list":["post-29856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collections","category-prints-photographs","category-rare-books-journals","tag-data","tag-digitization","tag-food","tag-president-woodrow-wilson","tag-recipes","tag-research"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/boys-at-lunch_101448427_feature.jpg?fit=900%2C399&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-7Ly","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19605840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29856"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29888,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29856\/revisions\/29888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}