How You Can Celebrate
NSLW isn’t just important—it’s also fun! If your school wants to join in, keep an eye out for this year’s theme, which is usually announced in the months leading up to NSLW. You can incorporate the theme as much or as little as you’d like into your celebration.
Need ideas? Here are some fun ways to make NSLW a success at your school:
- Deck out your cafeteria with NSLW posters and other artwork portraying nutritious lunch foods. This is a great opportunity to make use of the annual theme in the way you illustrate and depict your lunchtime favorites. If your school is open to it, you can have students create a mural or permanent artwork for year-round display.
- Get in touch with local personalities like business owners, elected officials, athletes, news anchors, musicians or someone else your students will recognize, and invite them to stop by your cafeteria at lunchtime to eat with the students. If you can’t find a local celebrity, you can always have the school mascot or ask a volunteer to dress up as a movie or TV character.
- Invite teachers, administrators or even your school principal to stand in as guest servers for lunch one day.
- Offer a tasting of new menu items and talk to students about the nutritious benefits they get from certain foods. Tell them they get vitamins and minerals from all the colorful fruits and vegetables, or explain to them the way whole-grains provide carbs for sustained energy during recess or sports practice.
Remember that NSLW is as much about informing your community about the importance of school lunch as it is about informing the students and parents. Reach out to local media outlets to see if they’re interested in talking to your district’s foodservice workers and doing a piece about the impact school lunches have.
Don’t forget: Just because NSLW takes place on a designated week every fall, you can shift your celebration to a different week if that’s more convenient. Maybe you have a teacher in-service day or student testing that week. Celebrate the week before, after or any other time of year!
