The Labor of Lunch

"What might the history of school lunch teach today's food justice activists about intersectionality? How did the private sector come to dominate what America's youth eat? Why are most people readier to think of 'lunch ladies' as administrators of slop than as front-line care workers? Jennifer Gaddis's swift prose and sharp mind keep you turning the pages through generations of women's movement activism, lunch shaming, chicken nuggets, and a corps sacrificing their own welfare so that 'their kids' might eat well. The result is a brilliant history and incisive analysis of the cheap care that hides behind the modern school lunch."--Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System "In this pathbreaking book, Gaddis shows that labor--and specifically by lunch ladies--is the missing ingredient in the recipe for success in the National School Lunch Program. A must-read for anyone who cares about children, food, education, labor, or well-being."--Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology, Boston College "This is an important book, one that advances the scholarship of food systems and public policy, and one that will contribute to mobilizing much-needed change in our national school food programs."--Janet Poppendieck, author of Free for All: Fixing School Food in America