5 things: Free meals for all students is best way to combat hunger, report concludes

In this edition of 5 Things, Food Management highlights five things you may have missed recently about developments affecting onsite dining.

Here’s your list for today:

 1.    Free meals for all students is best way to combat hunger, report concludes

Offering every child—regardless of income—free breakfast and lunch at school is the best recipe for combatting hunger and ensuring students get the nutrition they need to learn, according to a report released recently by the Center on American Progress think tank. The report recommends that the federal government craft expanded guidance on meat-free and culturally relevant foods that meet federal nutrition standards and suggests schools consider salad bars as a way to help students get larger portions while reducing waste and emphasizing the consumption of vegetables. It also recommends that schools give students at least 20 minutes of seated eating time.

Read more: Free Meals for All Students Is Best Way to Combat Hunger, Report Concludes

 2.    UB’s Veggie Van serves as mobile produce market “living lab”

At first glance, the new mobile produce markets on University at Buffalo (UB) North and South campuses appears to be just a place to buy fresh produce, but they are also “a living laboratory” designed to test innovations developed through the Veggie Van Study, a research project based at UB and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that provides technical assistance to organizations around the country looking to start mobile produce markets or evaluate their current programs. The UB Veggie Van is available to the entire campus community, with recent offerings such as broccolini, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, ginger gold apples and watermelon, all fresh and sourced from local farmers.

Related:5 things: Report finds food-as-medicine strategies could save billions in healthcare costs

Read more: More than a market, UB Veggie Van is a ‘living lab’

 3.    Report finds workers holding out for food and other perks before returning to offices

According to exclusive data from a report from video-conferencing devices company Owl Labs, first provided to Fortune, almost all (94%) of workers are willing to make an office return, but they’re asking for designated private spaces, lenient dress codes and free or subsidized transit costs and meals to ease the transition. Owl Labs' most recent survey finds that nearly a third of workers said free or subsidized meals, snacks, and beverages would be a huge pull in getting them back to their desks.

Read more: Workers have a $1.4 trillion message for the Fortune 500: We’ll return to office if you pay for the commute, childcare, and lunch and coffee too

Related:5 tech things: ezCater announces workplace catering partnership with Panera

 4.    Sodexo sells home-care unit to private equity firm

Private equity firm Halifax Group has agreed to acquire Sodexo's worldwide home-care division, which is based in Irvine, Calif. and operates in eight countries, including the U.S., employing some 12,000 individuals across its locations. The deal includes the division's home-care subsidiaries in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Brazil, and CEO Natalie Black will continue at the company along with the senior management team, Halifax said.

Read more: Halifax to Acquire Sodexo's Worldwide Home-Care Division

 5.    ISS reaches major sustainability milestone reducing global food waste by 30%

ISS, the Danish parent firm of FM Top 50 firm ISS North America, has made significant progress against its global food service sustainability targets with a collective 30% food waste reduction from its 2019 baseline. This achievement puts ISS well on track to reach its target of 50% food waste reduction by 2027. Furthermore, ISS has taken yet another step towards fulfilling its commitment to the World Resource Institute’s Cool Food Pledge by reducing nearly 5% of the greenhouse gas emissions per 1,000 kcal associated with the food it serves globally.

Read more: ISS reaches major sustainability milestone reducing global food waste by 30%

Bonus: Viewpoint: Smart Kitchens—the sustainable future of cooking

Contact Mike Buzalka at [email protected]