Beyond the Classroom: National School Lunch Week

National School Lunch Week has officially kicked off at schools across the Desert Southwest and the country.

The week-long celebration is hosted in school cafeterias across the country. Cafeterias celebrate with decorations, special menus, and much more.

President John F. Kennedy created National School Lunch Week (NSLW) in 1962, and it serves more than 30 million children every school day.

Michael Clark, Director of School Nutrition for Crane Elementary School District, said they serve up to 6,000 lunches a day and about a million school lunches throughout a school year.

This year’s theme is “School Lunch: Lots 2 Love.” Clark said NSLW is being celebrated at local schools like Ronald Reagan Elementary School.

“Essentially, it not only helps the children but it helps the teachers be better teachers because the children are more prepared to learn,” Clark said.

At Ronald Reagan specifically, the administration is looking at the menu and highlighting favorite food items.

“Some of our more popular items are specifically, we’re having our famous homemade pig in the blanket with our homemade bread… another thing that is popular is our whole-grain tamale,” said Clark.

Clark said to help celebrate this year’s theme of “Lots 2 Love” they are handing out whole-grain heart-shaped cookies.

Clark wants kids to realize that eating healthy can be fun.

NSLW helps increase student participation and helps spread the message to parents that healthy foods are being served.

National School Lunch Week is from Monday, October 15, to Friday, the 19th.

Use the hashtag #NSLW18 to share your pictures and videos on social media!

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