A fresh school year is right around the corner, but not all students took the summer off. Milwaukee Public School student Eliza Palacios is organizing other students around the quality of school lunches and more.
Palacios is a coordinator with Youth Empowered in the Struggle, or YES, which is the youth arm of Voces De La Frontera.
YES launched its "School Lunch Justice" campaign earlier this year. At a press conference on March 31, YES released a list of demands for Milwaukee Public Schools. They compiled these demands based on survey responses from students throughout MPS.
The YES "School Lunch Justice" demands for Milwaukee Public Schools are the following:
1. Provide fresh school lunch that is cooked at the school by food service staff with locally sourced ingredients.
2. Provide more lunch options simultaneously.
3. Put a system in place that identifies and accommodates students' personal, religious, and medical dietary needs.
4. Provide larger, more filling meals that leave students feeling ready to learn, instead of hungry.
5. Hire more lunch staff to cook the meals and increase their wages.
6. MPS Board of Directors establish regular meetings with YES members to ensure these demands are met and implemented with student voices at the table.
Palacios joined WUWM's Community Engagement Coordinator Rafael Muñoz-Echavarria via WUWM's Instagram Live to discuss the YES "School Lunch Justice" campaign. Here's the conversation:
More information and resources
Youth Empowered in the Struggle delivers information on their Facebook page.
Community members can support YES through a change.org petition.
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