Public Relations

Brittany F. Dunn

Introduction to Public Relations CM 227.01

Newspaper Story Synopsis #1

15 September 2005

Extreme Makeover: School Lunch Edition

With American being in this crazy diet phase, the issue of school lunches has become more and more prevalent in recent years. Daily lunches served in our nation's schools range from soggy pizza and glazed chicken to overcooked vegetables and french fries. As a result, children are opting to spend their lunch money on cookies and candy, in edition to the new fast food stands that are in more than half the schools in the nation. Big industries like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell spent about $3 billion on television ads directed at children. Celebrity chefs, politicians and concerned parents are making it their goal to improve what their children eat while they are at school. The goal is to rid the vending machines that line the hallways of Skittles and Doritos, and replace them with beef jerky and whole-wheat pretzels, which is just a start. School budgets can not afford to completely remodel the school lunch, but volunteers and responsible parents are doing what they can to get the ball rolling.

Public Relations is a definite in this article because the magazine and reporter used the "Success = R4" idea by introducing, "The right message in front of the right people in the right place for the right amount of time." Many of Newsweek's readers happen to be concerned parents, who may have a child being served a poor school lunch. Not only should their children be enriching their minds in school, but also their bodies, they may feel compelled to speak out and make some changes in the neighborhood school.

The stakeholders in this school lunch situation are the students, a two way win-win situation should be negotiated between children and schools. The new, healthier food must be tasty so the kids are compelled to replace their cookies and candy with a balanced meal.

The only organization really blasted in this article was the British government. An English chef named Jamie Oliver made a documentary about the nation's school-food program, which resulted in the government spending $500 million to turn the negatives into positives. Using the British