Why school cafeterias should be on the frontlines of policy change
“The best way to make school lunch great for all children is to build a movement—at local, state and national scales—to transform the National School Lunch Program into a program that dishes up real food and real jobs in all American communities.” That’s SoHE assistant professor Jennifer Gaddis in a widely shared op-ed this week in The Guardian (US edition). Dr. Gaddis draws from years of research into the history of the American school lunch program, which she details in her forthcoming book, The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools (University of California Press, November 2019). Follow her on Twitter to learn more.
Five new faculty join SoHE this fall
This fall, five new faculty members join the School of Human Ecology community, with research areas ranging from Black fatherhood and family philanthropy to Indigenous language revitalization. Their curricula vitae are as impressive as they come, as you can see on their faculty pages, but each of these people is also a storied and thoughtful individual. Meet them here.
What Americans get wrong about student debt
Forbes columnist Wesley Whistle cited SoHE’s Lorna Jorgensen Wendt Assistant Professor of Money, Relationships, and Equality Fenaba Addo in his piece earlier this week about incorrect assumptions Americans have about higher education debt. Specifically, he pointed to her findings that racial wealth disparities lead Black students to borrow at a higher rate, and to borrow more. Fittingly, Dr. Addo was at a conference this week discussing just this topic with fellow leaders in the field.