School Food, Equity and Social Justice
Dorte Ruge, Irene Torres, Darren Powell
Abstract
The privatizing and fast-food-izing of school meals can be seen as a colonization of food practices by market logic, embedded in understandings of the school meal as a private good, and of schools and students as consumers. The purpose of the chapter is to explore the idea of school meals as an element of educating for viable futures, drawing on the notion of (de)colonization as a frame of reference for identifying absences (colonizing practices) and emergences (possible openings and spaces for decolonization). The chapter is highlighting perspectives revealing the commodification of school meals, as well as perspectives on school meals as a commons. It is concluded with a discussion of possible openings and spaces for decolonization in school meal programs and approaches, and reflections on what the perspective of (de)colonization can contribute with of insight when it comes to the notion of educating for viable futures.