2026-09-28T10:00:29.780Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/28/politics/trump-school-lunch-rfk-jr
康涅狄格州梅里登——
九月的一个周一早晨，托马斯·胡克小学的三名食堂工作人员动作麻利、有条不紊地为300名学生准备午餐。
工作人员从包装袋中取出冷冻爆米花鸡块，裹上橙味酱汁后放入保温烤箱，搭配现煮糙米和青豆上桌。预制成型的汉堡肉饼夹在面包中，加上芝士加热后供餐。小份装的婴儿胡萝卜、切片黄瓜和圣女果摆放在小餐盒中，搭配新鲜苹果、橙子以及罐装水果供选择。
这些午餐准备人员可用的空间和设备都十分有限——这极大限制了他们从零开始制作食物的能力。这所康涅狄格州的学校建于20世纪60年代，当时许多学生都会回家吃午餐，因此最初并未建造厨房。梅里登公立学校最终用三个壁橱拼凑出一个厨房，食堂经理的办公桌离洗碗池只有几英尺远，而洗碗池所在的房间与炉灶、冰箱和其他电器所在的房间是分开的。
正如该学区食品与营养服务主管苏珊·马菲所说，这个过程“无疑非常具有挑战性”。
托马斯·胡克小学的情况典型反映了许多学区在增加从零开始制作的餐食时会面临的障碍——而特朗普政府正推动各学区这么做。在学校餐食中提供更多“真正的食物”、减少超加工食品供应，是美国卫生与公众服务部部长罗伯特·F·肯尼迪 Jr.的“让美国再次健康”运动的核心支柱之一。
“我们需要扩大从零开始的烹饪，减少添加糖和超加工食品，提供更多新鲜农产品、全谷物和优质蛋白质，”肯尼迪在8月一场改善学校餐食的新闻发布会上表示，“学区告诉我们，他们需要更好的厨房、设备、培训以及从零开始烹饪的实用模式。”
为帮助学校全面改革菜单，农业部长布鲁克·罗林斯在此次活动上宣布，美国农业部将提供7000万美元的设备拨款，用于改善学校厨房。美国卫生与公众服务部则表示，将投入3000万美元用于研究，以找出制作更健康学校餐食的经济有效方式。
学校营养官员认同这一目标，但表示这笔资金远远不足以实现这一目标。
“7000万美元在50个州范围内根本不够用，”学校营养基金会主席盖伊·安德森说道。该基金会是全国学校营养专业组织的慈善分支机构。
马菲表示，仅梅里登学区去年在设备采购和维修上就花费了超过30万美元。但康涅狄格州整个州在首批拨款中仅能获得20.9万美元。
设备并非学区增加从零制作餐食时面临的唯一障碍。缺乏熟练劳动力、空间不足以及日常运营资金短缺，也是美国农业部拨款未能解决的挑战。
雪上加霜的是，各学区正在等待针对全国学校餐食项目的新美国农业部营养标准。该项目每天为约1500万儿童提供早餐，为约3000万儿童提供午餐。这项可能需要数年时间才能实施的提案，预计将更加强调供应更多现做食物。
根据学校营养协会最近的一项调查，目前全国仅有16%的学区每天至少供应一些从零制作的食物。约71%的学区每周至少一次供应从零制作的餐食——即使用新鲜、未加工和全天然食材来制作部分或全部餐食。
学校厨房的布局和能力差异巨大。一些学区设有中央厨房设施，至少准备部分餐食后每日运送到各学校。在其他地区，早餐和午餐在学校厨房现场制作，各学区之间甚至同一学区内不同学校之间的设备和人员配置都存在显著差异。
但大多数学校都有一个共同点。
“学校根本没有能力从零制作所有菜单菜品——超过93%的学区表示，需要更多员工、餐饮培训、设备和基础设施，以减少对超加工食品的依赖，”学校营养协会在今年早些时候的一份立场文件中写道。
安德森非常了解许多学区对新厨房设备的迫切需求，因为她负责监督学校营养协会基金会的年度设备拨款项目。
该基金会今年颁发了超过66万美元的拨款，帮助65个学区购买烤箱、食品加工机、冰箱、包装密封设备、蔬菜脱水机等设备。受助学区可与制造商合作，采购符合自身特定需求的物品。
但安德森表示，该基金会无法帮助众多其他申请者，而美国农业部的拨款项目也远远不够。
就连她所在的南达科他州苏福尔斯学区也几乎没有从零制作的食物。该学区设有一个中央厨房，50名工作人员在此准备餐食，然后用卡车运送到24所小学供学生食用。早餐必须在前一天送达并在现场冷藏。午餐则尽量在接近用餐时间时送达。
这些小学没有厨房，仅有水槽、冰箱和橱柜。该学区的11所初中和高中设备更完善，可在现场准备食物，但大多是从冷冻柜直接拿到烤箱加热，比如早餐的火鸡煎饼卷，午餐的披萨和炸鸡条。少数现做菜品包括炒饭和肉汁。
安德森表示，仅为这些小学配备热早餐设备就需要35万美元。然而，整个州在首批美国农业部设备拨款中仅能获得6.9万美元。
“我们希望为学生提供最营养的餐食，”安德森说，“我们只需要获得足够的资金，才能发挥创意并让这些计划落地。”
除了缺乏设备，许多学区也没有雇佣全职食堂工作人员。员工流动率很高，因为食堂工作人员的薪资往往不如零售或仓储工作。
这进一步增加了准备更多从零制作食物的难度，因为这需要培训员工处理生肉、遵守食谱和营养标准，以及安全使用包括锋利刀具和蒸箱在内的设备。
还有现有的资金短缺问题。去年梅里登学区为每名学生提供午餐的成本约为5.07美元，其中包括2.44美元的人力成本、2.04美元的食材成本、20美分的设备成本，其余部分用于托管服务、办公用品、水电费和员工培训。
但马菲获得的联邦报销仅为每顿餐食约4.80美元。这给她的预算造成了预计25万美元的缺口，她不得不通过午餐时段售卖健康零食和饮料、为学区活动提供餐饮服务以及使用部分州级资金来弥补——因为该学区不会为学校餐食运营提供任何支持。
马菲对即将出台的联邦营养指南感到担忧。她说，如果要求托马斯·胡克小学在菜单上增加更多现做食物，“我不知道该怎么做。真的不知道。”
当被问及学区的担忧时，美国农业部发言人表示，报销标准由国会制定。该发言人还表示，农业部近20年来一直在提供拨款支持设备采购。
“让美国再次健康从课堂开始，农业部很高兴能尽自己的一份力，”该发言人说道。
一些学区在为学生提供新鲜食物方面取得了更大进展。
去年秋天，科罗拉多州利特尔顿公立学校斥资400万美元开设了一个中央生产厨房，目标是制作更多从零开始的食物。该项目资金来自学区垫付的款项、营养服务部门预算中剩余的新冠疫情专项基金以及当地基金会的捐赠。
中央厨房的三名厨师准备了多种餐食，包括早餐的西葫芦松饼和煎饼预拌粉，午餐的自制辣椒原料、本地采购牛肉制作的塔可饼以及鸡肉 pot pie（鸡肉派）。他们还自制番茄酱和香料混合物。这些食材随后会被运送到该学区的21所学校进行烹饪或最终加工。
营养服务主管杰西卡·古尔德表示，在中央厨房投入使用前，只有约四分之一的午餐菜品是从零制作的。新设施使这一比例翻了一倍多。
当然，转向更健康的现做食物可能会带来另一个问题。
“一些孩子已经习惯了卡夫通心粉和奶酪，”古尔德说，“我们正在尝试迈出一大步。让他们的口味跟上变化将是我们面临的下一个挑战。”
Trump wants schools to prepare lunch from scratch. Here’s why that’s harder than it sounds
2026-09-28T10:00:29.780Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/28/politics/trump-school-lunch-rfk-jr
Meriden, Connecticut—
On a Monday morning in September, three cafeteria staffers worked swiftly and methodically to prepare lunch for 300 children at Thomas Hooker Elementary School.
Frozen popcorn chicken nuggets were taken out of bags before the workers smothered them in an orange glaze and put them in a warming oven to be served with fresh-made brown rice and green beans. Premade hamburger patties on buns were topped with cheese and heated. Baby carrots, sliced cucumbers and cherry tomatoes sat in small cups, along with fresh apples and oranges and a choice of canned fruits.
The lunch preppers don’t have much space or equipment to work with — greatly limiting the amount of food they can make from scratch. The school in Connecticut was built in the 1960s without a kitchen, at a time when many children went home for lunch. Meriden Public Schools eventually cobbled together a kitchen out of three closets, where the cafeteria manager’s desk is a few feet from the pot washing sink, which is in a separate room from the stove, refrigerators and other appliances.
The process, as Susan Maffe, director of food and nutrition services for the school district, puts it,“is definitely very challenging.”
The situation at Thomas Hooker typifies the hurdles many districts would face to make more of their meals from scratch — as the Trump administration is pushing them to do. Serving more “real food” and cutting down on ultra-processed offerings in schools is a key pillar of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement.
“We need to expand scratch cooking, reduce added sugars and ultra-processed food, serve more fresh produce, whole grains and high-quality protein,” Kennedy said at a news conference in August on improving school meals. “Schools tell us they need better kitchens, equipment, training, practical models for cooking from scratch.”
To help schools overhaul their menus, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced at the event that the US Department of Agriculture would provide $70 million in equipment grants toward improving their kitchens. And HHS said it will invest $30 million in research to identify cost-effective ways to make school meals healthier.
School nutrition officials share that goal but say the money will be nowhere near enough what’s needed to achieve it.
“$70 million won’t go far across 50 states,” said Gay Anderson, chair of the School Nutrition Foundation, a charitable arm of the national professional organization on school nutrition.
Meriden alone spent more than $300,000 for equipment purchases and repairs last year, Maffe said. But Connecticut is set to receive just $209,000 for the entire state in an initial tranche of grants.
Equipment isn’t the only obstacle school districts face in trying to increase their scratch-made offerings. A lack of skilled labor, space and funding for general operations are also challenges that the USDA grants don’t address.
Adding to the pressure, the districts are awaiting new USDA nutrition standards for the national school meals program, which provides breakfast to roughly 15 million children and lunch to about 30 million kids daily. The proposal, which will likely take several years to implement, is expected to emphasize serving even more food that’s freshly made.
Currently, only 16% of school districts around the country serve at least some items made from scratch on a daily basis, according to a recent survey by the School Nutrition Association. About 71% of districts serve a scratch-made offering — one that’s made using fresh, raw and whole ingredients to prepare some or all of a meal — at least once a week.
School kitchens vary widely in their setups and capabilities. Some districts have central kitchen facilities, which prepare at least part of the meals that are then transported daily to schools. Elsewhere, breakfasts and lunches are prepared onsite in school kitchens that differ significantly in their equipment and staffing from district to district, and even from school to school within the same district.
But most have one thing in common.
“Schools are simply not equipped to scratch prepare all menu items — more than 93% cited the need for more staff, culinary training, equipment and infrastructure to reduce reliance on UPFs,” or ultra-processed foods, the School Nutrition Association wrote in a position paper earlier this year.
Anderson knows just how desperate many school districts are for new kitchen appliances, since she oversees an annual equipment grant program for the School Nutrition Association’s foundation.
The foundation awarded more than $660,000 in grants this year that will allow 65 districts to buy ovens, food processors, refrigerators, package sealing equipment, produce spinners and more. The awardees work with manufacturers to provide items that meet their specific needs.
But the foundation cannot help many others who apply, and the USDA’s grant program is far from enough, Anderson said.
Even her own school district in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, serves little, if anything, from scratch. The district has a central kitchen facility, where 50 staffers prepare the meals, truck them to 24 elementary schools and serve them to students. Breakfast has to be delivered the day before and refrigerated onsite. Lunch is delivered as close to mealtime as possible.
The elementary schools have no kitchens — just sinks, fridges and cupboards. The 11 middle and high schools in the district are better equipped, serving food that’s prepared onsite but largely goes from freezer to oven, such as turkey pancake wraps for breakfast and pizza and chicken tenders for lunch. Some fresh-made items include fried rice and gravy.
Just equipping the elementary schools to serve hot breakfasts would cost $350,000, Anderson said. Yet, the entire state is set to receive only $69,000 from the initial tranche of USDA equipment funds.
“We want to give the students the most nutritional meal possible,” Anderson said. “We just have to be able to have the proper funding so we can be creative and make these things work.”
Besides a lack of appliances,many districts don’t employ full-time cafeteria staffers. Turnover is high because workers can often earn more at retail or warehouse jobs.
That adds to the challenge of trying to prepare more food from scratch, which would require training the staff to handle raw meat, adhere to recipes and nutrition standards and safely use the equipment, including sharp knives and steamers.
And then there’s the existing funding shortfall. Feeding lunch to the children in Meriden cost about $5.07 per meal last year, including $2.44 for labor, $2.04 for food and 20 cents for equipment, with the rest going towards custodial services, office supplies, utilities and staff training.
But Maffe’s federal reimbursement was only about $4.80 per meal. That’s blowing a projected $250,000 hole in her budget, which she has to make up through selling healthy snacks and beverages at lunch, providing catering for school district events and utilizing some state funds since the district doesn’t provide any support for the school meals operations.
Maffe is wary of the looming federal nutrition guidelines. If she were required to put more fresh-made food on the menu at Thomas Hooker, she said, “I have no idea how I would do it. I really don’t.”
Asked about school districts’ concerns, a USDA spokesperson said that reimbursement rates are set by Congress. Also, the agency has provided grants to support equipment purchases for nearly 20 years, the spokesperson said.
“Making America Healthy Again starts in the classroom, and USDA is excited to do its part,” the spokesperson said.
Some school districts have made more progress in serving fresh food to their students.
Last fall,Littleton Public Schools in Colorado opened a $4 million central production kitchen with the goal of cooking more from scratch. It used money fronted by the school district, leftover Covid-19 funds in the nutrition service’s budget and donations from local foundations.
The central kitchen’s three chefs prepare such offerings as zucchini muffins and pancake mixes for breakfast and, for lunch, the ingredients for homemade chili, tacos with locally sourced beef and chicken pot pie. They also whip up marinara sauce and spice mixes. The items are then cooked or finished at the district’s 21 schools.
Prior to the central kitchen, only about a quarter of lunch items were made from scratch, said Jessica Gould, the nutrition services director. The facility allowed them to more than double the amount.
Of course, shifting to healthier, fresh-made food could pose another problem.
“Some kids are used to Kraft mac and cheese,” Gould said. “We’re trying to make a big leap here. To get their taste buds to follow is going to be our next challenge.”
