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Educational Dimensions of School Lunch pp 189–202Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

We Are How We Eat: An Argument for the Social Value of Slow School Lunch

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Abstract

This chapter examines the lunch practices at Bishop Seabury Academy, a private school in Lawrence, Kansas. At Bishop Seabury, all students and staff sit together in mixed age, randomly assigned, biweekly rotations three days each week throughout the year. This purposeful arrangement serves as a backdrop against which I develop a critique of school lunch in its more typical—and taken for granted—form as simply a necessary pause to refuel the body. Drawing conceptually from the “slow” movement for the serious reconsideration of lunch, I compare Seabury and other efforts that promote the social value of lunchtime. My analysis illustrates how such initiatives challenge enduring “fast food” orientations to what and how we eat in school.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

    Jennifer C. Ng

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  1. Jennifer C. Ng
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

    Suzanne Rice

  2. Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA

    A.G. Rud

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Ng, J.C. (2018). We Are How We Eat: An Argument for the Social Value of Slow School Lunch. In: Rice, S., Rud, A. (eds) Educational Dimensions of School Lunch. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72517-8_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72517-8_11

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-72516-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-72517-8

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

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