Serving the Country: A Critical Discourse Analysis of National Media About School Meal Policies from 2020-2024

One of the most common daily activities for children across the United States (U.S.) is a school meal. These meals are operated through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP). Scholars have described school meal programs as highly political, as they represent the interests of different entities. Since their inception, the NSLP and SBP have undergone periods of growth and stagnation, reflecting the political and cultural shifts in the United States. This study focuses on the period of time surrounding the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic as a unique sociohistorical period in which to explore the NSLP and SBP as well as school meals in general. Grounded in a Foucauldian perspective, this dissertation was designed to critically analyze the discursive construction of the occupation of school meals. A central concept is that of power as a productive force that allows certain knowledge to be produced and represses other rationalities. Everyday activities, such as school meals, are therefore constructed through power/knowledge relationships which can be analyzed through discourse. A major objective of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is to explore how certain rationalities are mobilized to construct problems and solution frames. In this dissertation, I analyze national media to identify discursive threads that surfaced and interacted with one another in the field of school meals. The results reveal an intersecting web of reasonings that reflect underlying discursive threads of nationalism, neoliberalism, and healthism. The findings are described in three sections that together offer a nuanced narrative of school meals in America from 2020-2024. Section One is entitled “A Crisis to Our Pledge” and contains three segments that explore the occupation of a school meal during Covid-19. Section Two is entitled “Who Deserves a School Meal” and examines subjectivities constructed in the discourse of school meals. Finally, Section Three is entitled “The Construction of Americans” which further details the positions of school meal workers and the value of children learning adult roles through school meals. My interpretations provide a rich analysis of the political and politicizing occupation of school meals in the U.S. during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.