As many of us in the United States prepare for the start of a new school year, Panorama Strategy gathered insights into the intersection of two pillars critical to student success: school feeding programs that nourish young minds, and mental health programming and interventions that nurture their well-being.
Two members of the Panorama team share below how both are crucial aspects of a strong foundation that creates and sustains a positive and valuable learning experience. Read on for insights from Jennifer Shin, a Director at Panorama Strategy, and Sierra Fox-Woods, a Senior Program Officer at Panorama Global.
School feeding programs
How do school meal programs contribute to the overall success of school-aged youth?
Jenny Shin: School meal programs are an investment in our children with multiple impacts on their well-being. Receiving a healthy and nutritious meal at school can improve students’ health, nutrition, and learning outcomes. These programs are especially important as we continue to recover from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when 1.6 billion students around the world were affected by school closures and more than 370 million children globally missed out on school meals. For many children, school meals are the reliable daily source of food and nutrition and an incentive for families to send their children to school. School meal programs can be even more impactful for adolescent girls to stay in secondary schools and break out of a cycle of poverty by delaying pregnancy and early marriage. As the Global Survey of School Meal Programs shows, school meal programs are affordable and cost-effective investments that governments can make in the education, health, and well-being of children that are the foundation of our societies.
Could you share an example of an impactful school meal program you’ve encountered, and what specific best practices or strategies stood out to you in those initiatives?
JS: Home grown school feeding programs link schools with local smallholder farmers to not only improve child nutrition but also boost local economies. I was lucky to witness and support the Home Grown School Feeding initiative in Cambodia through the UN World Food Program where schools procured rice, meat, fish, and vegetables from local farmers. Not only do school children receive more diverse and nutritious meals, but farmers mutually benefit from receiving a predictable market for their products which leads to more steady incomes and higher productivity. Now 70% of the food for Cambodia school meals must be grown locally, which has also incentivized more women farmers to grow their own vegetables to sell to local schools that their own children attend. It’s incredible to see the ripple effects of a truly community-based program that directly invests in the well-being of children but also strengthens their families and local economies. It’s a virtuous cycle!
What are the key challenges that school meal programs are facing, and what do you find encouraging about efforts you’ve seen to address those challenges?
JS: The most challenging aspect about school meals is that it’s truly intersectional programming bringing together education, health, nutrition, and local food systems. It’s a diverse group of stakeholders that need to work together towards a common aim, from different government ministries and development agencies to NGOs and private sector actors. What’s encouraging is that the pandemic created urgency for many of these stakeholders to work together, mostly led by national governments, through the School Meals Coalition. It’s very exciting to see national governments lead and commit to these school meal programs with the understanding that it leverages multiple pathways through education, health, nutrition, food systems, and economic development to invest in the human capital of their countries.
Mental health programming for students
How does the implementation of comprehensive mental health programming contribute to the overall success of school-aged youth?
Sierra Fox-Woods: Beyond the obvious benefits (improved social skills, emotional resilience, and academic performance) mental health programming in schools sends a clear message to our youth: you matter, your feelings are valid, and you deserve to feel safe and supported. School-based services also ensure that our most marginalized groups, including youth from economically disadvantaged families and children of color, can access care.
Could you share an example of an impactful mental health intervention you’ve encountered through your work with grantee partners, and what specific best practices or strategies stood out to you in those initiatives?
SFW: One of The Upswing Fund for Adolescent Health grantee partners, Active Minds, engaged 120 high school students to champion mental health policy changes. Programming helped students advocate for school-based changes and provided expert training for the creation of mental health policy campaigns spanning local, state, and federal levels. These programs incorporated several best practices and strategies, including intentional representation by recruiting youth from BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ backgrounds; empowering youth to drive programming and define the change they wanted to see (while providing stipends for their time and effort); flexible delivery methods, nimbly working across time zones and with 60 different schools to engage youth in virtual programming all while navigating the challenges of “zoom fatigue”; and a focus on long-term systems change by investing in training the next generation of change makers to improve mental health policies at all levels.
What key factors do you believe funders should carefully consider when building partnerships with schools to effectively support and implement mental health programming? Are there lessons or insights you’ve gained from successful collaborations that you could share?
SFW: We interviewed our grantee partners and identified seven actionable recommendations based on their experiences building community partnerships. Successful collaborations have a few key factors in common.
First, they aligned program goals with school values and included relevant stakeholders. Recognizing the disproportionate effect policies like “zero tolerance” have on youth of color, Oasis Center collaborated with Metro Nashville Public Schools to critically examine discipline practices, disparities, and policies that could improve school culture and climate. Together they led a community coalition including the Juvenile Court Judge, Principals, and Public Defender that re-wrote a Student-Parent Handbook eliminating “zero tolerance” and other inequitable policies that disproportionately affect youth of color.
Successful collaborations also prioritized cultural responsivity. Acknowledging the disparate treatment of LGBTQ+ students across public schools in San Diego County, for example, TransFamily Support Services collaborated with local community centers and LGBTQ+ advocates to produce LGBTQ+ Youth Standards of Care, a comprehensive guide to providing a legally-compliant, LGBTQ+-affirming school campus that fosters safety, diversity, and inclusion.
What actionable steps or strategies would you recommend for individuals and organizations who want to play a meaningful role in supporting school health and nutrition, and the mental health of young people? Are there resources you believe can help others make a positive difference in fostering their well-being?
JS: In the U.S., the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program provide valuable meals for 30 million children and their families across America. A Rockefeller Foundation study showed that every dollar invested in these programs returns $2 in societal benefits by improving health outcomes and reducing childhood poverty. During the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture authorized a number of waivers that made school lunches free for all students but with these pandemic programs coming to an end, many families are struggling to keep their families fed. I would urge individuals and organizations to advocate at the state and federal level for universal school meal programs. You can also support organizations like No Kid Hungry and Feeding America that provide grants to schools, food banks, and community groups to fill funding gaps and other organizations like the National Farm to School Network, Chef Ann Foundation, and Whole Kids Foundation that work to improve access to locally available fresh and nutritious food.
SFW: For funders and organizations, resource early interventions: One in five U.S. adults experience mental illness but all of us have mental health. Schools use a framework called Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to ensure all students receive preventive, holistic care while allocating specialized resources to students with greater needs. In community-based settings, this is similar to a behavioral health continuum of care approach. Both models stress the importance of promoting mental health and well-being even before a diagnosis is made.
For those working directly with youth: learn the warning signs that a young person might be struggling and start a conversation about mental health. Normalize talking about your own mental health and model what it looks like to seek help. Lastly, help youth access culturally responsive and affirming care. To connect youth with in-person programming near you, you can refer to a list of our partners across 33 states and Washington, D.C.
There are also a number of free digital resources including:
- Asian Mental Health Collective: resource center sharing events, a therapist directory, and trainings catered to serving the Asian community.
- Imi: Mental health tool designed to help teens explore their identity and support their mental health. Watch a Learning Session we hosted for how the tool was created and how teens use it.
- NotOK: App offering immediate support via text, phone call, or GPS location.
- Nod: App to combat depression (see here for an Upswing Partner Showcase with the Nod team).
- PeerHealthxSelfsea: Affirming health resources co-designed with young people.
- Project Yes! Self-guided mental health tools for teens ages 11-17.
Finally, for more actionable recommendations based on your role (e.g. parent, educator, funder), I really love these lists of actions from the U.S. Surgeon General.
About these experts:
Sierra Fox-Woods joined Panorama Global in 2020 and played a key role on the team that launched The Upswing Fund for Adolescent Mental Health. She will attend the Grantmakers for Education annual conference in Atlanta on Oct. 12 to present a session alongside colleagues on “Funding Holistic and Systemic Approaches to Mental Health.” Sierra is Native Hawaiian and comes to Panorama most recently from Kamehameha Schools, a Hawai'i-based nonprofit educational trust. In this role, she helped facilitate a statewide public-private partnership to improve Native Hawaiian post-secondary retention and graduation, managed a multi-year research publication measuring Native Hawaiian well-being (Ka Huaka'i), and consulted on a variety of culture-based education and youth-development projects.
Jenny Shin joined Panorama Strategy in 2021. In her role as director, she supports partners on strategy development, stakeholder engagement, advocacy, and strategic communications. She approaches issues through collaborative problem-solving to develop solutions that are innovative and responsive to changing environments, and believes that strong research, inclusive coalition building, and storytelling drive effective advocacy and thought leadership. Prior to Panorama, Jenny served as a consultant to the Global Child Nutrition Foundation where she led cross-sectoral partnership development efforts, and developed and executed an advocacy strategy to support the launch of their Global Survey of School Meal Programs. Over the last 10 years, Jenny worked in Southeast Asia designing and managing projects at the intersection of health, nutrition, agriculture, and social impact with development agencies, government, and non-governmental organizations. She has worked with the UN World Food Program, World Bank, IADB, and US Embassy Jakarta.
