1st Edition

School Food, Equity and Social Justice Critical Reflections and Perspectives

Edited By Dorte Ruge, Irene Torres, Darren Powell Copyright 2022
    254 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    254 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    School Food, Equity and Social Justice provides contemporary, critical examinations of policies and practices relating to food in schools across 25 countries from an equity and social justice perspective.

    The book is divided into three sections: Food politics and policies; Sustainability and development; and, Teaching and learning about food. Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of academics with practitioner backgrounds, the chapters in this collection broaden discussions on school food to consider its educational and environmental implications, the ideals of food in schools, the emotional and ideological components of schooling food, and the relationships with home and everyday life.

    Our aim is to provide enhanced insight into matters of social justice in diverse contexts, and visions of how greater equality and equity may be achieved through school food policy and in school food programs. We expect this book to become essential reading for students, researchers and policy makers in health education, health promotion, educational practice and policy, public health, nutrition and social justice education.

    1.International perspectives on school food: A matter of equity and social justice Irene Torres, Darren Powell and Dorte Ruge Section 1. Food politics and policies 2. School food approaches in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador: Intentions, illusions and uncertainties Irene Torres and Daniel F. López-Cevallos 3. School foodscapes in Greenland and Denmark – critical perspectives Dorte Ruge and Mitdlarak Lennert 4. 'There’s no such thing as a free lunch': Food, schools, and philanthropy in New Zealand Darren Powell 5. The ‘sweet bun law’ and the politics of school food in Poland Zofia Boni 6. Experiencing school food policy and practice: Learning from eleven-year-old girls in a working-class community in Ireland Eluska Fernández, Karl Kitching and Deirdre Horgan 7. The national school food program in the interpretation of Brazilian managers Rosana Maria Nogueira and Bruna Barone Section 2. Sustainability and development 8. School meals in Norway – current status and a way forward? Frøydis Nordgård Vik 9. Sustainable school feeding programs: The experience in Latin America and Caribbean countries Najla Veloso and Flavia Schwartzman 10. School food and the promotion of a more just and equitable food system in South Africa Marc C. A. Wegerif, Thabang N. Msimango and Nokuthula Vilakazi 11. Avoiding the child poverty curse in Ghana and South Africa: Is school food as a social protection tool sufficient? Michael Addaney, Patrick Brandful Cobbinah and Getrude Dadirai Gwenzi Section 3: Teaching and learning about food 12. Japanese school lunch and food education Yukako Waida and Miho Kawamura 13. Is the Indian school food environment healthy? A review Neha Rathi and Anthony Worsley 14. Noticing and rupturing settler-colonial logics with fooding pedagogies: Thinking with children-food relations and more-than-human worlds Lisa-Marie Gagliardi 15. Exploring the idea of school meals as an element of educating for viable futures Monica Carlsson and Irene Torres 16. Our visions for school food Darren Powell, Dorte Ruge and Irene Torres

    Biography

    Dorte Ruge, PhD, Associate Professor, UCL University College, Department of Education and Social Science, Denmark.

    Irene Torres, PhD, Technical Director, Fundacion Octaedro, Quito, Ecuador.

    Darren Powell, PhD, senior lecturer, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland.

    "No other collection so deeply and widely covers the international and transnational contexts of school food provision, especially not as this one does in considering the social and political work done by school meals. This book moves the field dramatically forward in understanding what we mean when we talk about social justice in school food.The contributors point out an impressively comprehensive array of dynamics that fall under the umbrella of social justice, including ecological sustainability, decolonization, hunger and food insecurity, gender bias, and so much more.  This tremendous volume’s cataloging of social justice aspects both underscores the importance of context in national school food provision and—perhaps more importantly—should inspire researchers to go back and make sure they haven’t missed those dynamics at work in their own locales."

    -Marcus Weaver-Hightower Professor, Foundations of Education, Virginia Tech

    "Imagine school meals that were seen as an integral part of the school day, connected to education and all students eating together and enjoying food that is nourishing and teaches them about food, science, social studies and culture in meaningful ways. That is the vision of School Food, Equity and Social Justice: Critical Reflections and Perspectives. And this vision is beautifully accomplished by examining the construction and enactment of school food policies and politics; exploring how an equitable and just school meals program can be sustainable and how that looks different in different countries and cultures; and exploring how school meals can be seamlessly woven into teaching and learning. I hope that educators, policy makers, school food service directors, and anyone who cares about today's school students reads this book and transforms their school meals, so they are a joyful and nourishing part of each and every school day." 

    Pamela A. Koch, Mary Swartz Rose, Associate Professor of Nutrition Education