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Meals With Your People: Taking A Bite Out of the Proverbial Apple
I’m delighted to say that I have found the start of the 2024-25 school year to be wonderful — exciting, calm, and connected all at once. From our first days in August, when I saw so many of you on the front steps, to now some four weeks later, as I greet kids in the stairwell in the mornings, I see students connected to each other, connected to their classes, and connected to their goals and hopes for the year.
One of the many places I see these connections is at our shared lunch, with hot food and a great new salad bar. I would like to take a moment to reflect on our lunchtime and the fact that students do not use their phones during the day.
During Orientation Week, Associate Head of School, Ms. Kate Oldre, spoke to our upper school students gathered in the school’s dining commons. “I look at each day as another bite at the apple. How do we make school better and better?” At Geffen Academy, this is a question we ask ourselves each year — and is one that educators and policymakers are grappling with nationwide. Amidst many current discussions about improving schools for all students is the debate on “free” school meals. Whatever the ideological or political aspects of school meals might be, the experience of Geffen Academy at UCLA demonstrates that providing school meals and eliminating on-campus payment is one answer to the question of how we improve schools for students and families.
During Orientation Week, Associate Head of School, Ms. Kate Oldre, spoke to our upper school students gathered in the school’s dining commons. “I look at each day as another bite at the apple. How do we make school better and better?” At Geffen Academy, this is a question we ask ourselves each year — and is one that educators and policymakers are grappling with nationwide. Amidst many current discussions about improving schools for all students is the debate on “free” school meals. Whatever the ideological or political aspects of school meals might be, the experience of Geffen Academy at UCLA demonstrates that providing school meals and eliminating on-campus payment is one answer to the question of how we improve schools for students and families.
Specifically, our students’ time together at lunch illustrates how meals with your people enhances a student’s learning experience. In fact, I would suggest that the U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the public health crisis of loneliness post-pandemic is an issue that can be addressed through an equitable and careful approach to mealtimes. Considerable research illustrates the pro-social benefits of family meals, where children and their parents or caregivers sit together over meals, talk with each other, and weave a community through shared food and conversation. Family meals have been linked in multiple studies to improved physical and mental health, including reductions in obesity, eating disorders, and depression, and improvements in self-esteem and school performance. We hear this from our students. Geffen Academy tenth grader Paloma R. said about school mealtime, “We all have the same meal in front of us…It’s like a family value reflected in our academic life.”
The time students spend dining together is as important to their work, relationships, and well-being as their time in classrooms, athletic practice, or drama rehearsal. But if we were to create distinctions among students at mealtimes, we would perpetuate a social stigma that undermines opportunities for essential relationship-building and mitigates the chance to exercise pro-social behaviors. When differences in family income are not showcased, the opportunity for meaningful connections is made more possible.
When asked about their lunch experience at Geffen Academy, eleventh grader Deivis D. said, “This aspect takes the pressure off people to put on a performance with their food…You think more about the interaction” with friends and classmates.
A group of tenth grade girls who live on opposite ends of Los Angeles meets every morning for breakfast at Geffen Academy. Tenth grader Zoë said, “I really love eating with my friends because it lets me know that my school actually values the relationships I build with my peers rather than just our academic life. It’s a great time to engage, and especially since we don’t have phones at our meal time, we really get to talking and focus on building really good relationships.” Approaching mealtime as part of a child’s development is part of what prompted Geffen Academy to implement a no-cell phone policy some five years ago.
Although the full impact on teens of cell phones in schools is not yet known, studies are already pointing to potential impacts on brain development from students’ (and adults’) continual checking of social media. In addition, Educators can share copious and well-documented examples of the disruptions caused by cell phones in classrooms. The provision of communal meals, coupled with cell phone limits, is Geffen Academy’s strategic approach to promoting engaged and thoughtful student connections, strengthening our school’s mission to create spaces of belonging, combating loneliness, and building a more robust school community — one big bite out of the proverbial apple.
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