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NEW YORK—Students and parents are now able to see the nutritional value of school lunches around NYC using a new application (app) called Lunch Line.
The app aims to raise awareness about healthy eating and aims to help students, parents, and schools improve their lunchtime cuisine.
A high-school class led by City-As-School biology teacher Naima Freitas initially set out to improve school lunches. They soon developed ideas based around an app.
“The food movement right now is about better quality and better ingredients, however school food is lagging behind,” said Naima, who is also a mother.
Naima then met up with staff of The Shelly and Donald Rubin Foundation to discuss the idea.
The foundation, which funds a variety of humanitarian and social justice projects in New York and the Himalayan regions, liked the idea and provided funding and resources.
“We love the empowering of students,” said a representative for the foundation.
Emma Jenney, 17, of City-As-School in Manhattan said the app includes a nutritional breakdown of lunches from schools across the city.
You can find your school, add information, and learn about what’s on the day’s menu, she said.
“It was super fun, we got to learn about schools’ lunches,” said Nikola Carouso, 18.
The project was prompted due to discontent with the quality of food in school lunches.
Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, joined the launch of the app Wednesday.
“A lot of kids would rather go hungry than eat a bad lunch,” Berg said.
He believes that poor quality food and hungry students are a serious issue. “It is directly tied to education performance.”Naima and her students hope that people will use this tool to organize, share information, educate themselves, and advocate for improved lunches at their schools.
The Lunch Line app also provides a useful knowledge base and resources about nutrition. More information about Lunch Line can be found online at www.lunchlinenyc.org
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