Filmed over 12 months inside Boston Public Schools’ cafeterias and kitchens, Eat Up tells a story of power, food, the future of children, and how hard it can be in America to do the right thing in the face of unwieldy regulations and corporate interests.
Eat Up ripples from Boston to cafeterias across the nation, offering a model for healthy eating and how to navigate the politics of our most difficult terrain: public schools.
8 out of 10 public school students in Boston live on or below the poverty line. In Boston, nearly 80% of public school students are food insecure. Every student is eligible for free school lunch, yet participation in the government-funded program is low. The majority of schools in the district don’t have kitchens are dependent on for-profit vended food. Much of the frozen meals end up in the trash.
How hard can it be to deliver fresh, nutritious school meals under the federal reimbursement rate and within government regulations that kids will actually eat?
The VII Foundation film Eat Up is available through Peacock, iTunes and Amazon.
