NYC student makes film about "disgusting" school lunch

When most kids don’t like their soggy school lunch food, they complain about it. Not so for one fourth-grader. Zachary Maxwell, a student at Public School 130 in Little Italy, decided last year to cook up a film documenting the less-than-appetizing grub served on white styrofoam trays.

He found it to be a far cry from the nutritious noshes the Education Department has recently boasted about preparing in public schools across the city.

“It sounded like the food was coming from the most delicious restaurant,” said the 11-year-old, now in fifth grade. “Like, ‘golden crispy chicken nuggets and fresh braised collards.’ But some of it kind of looked disgusting.” Instead, Zachary said, he got “burned chicken nuggets with no green beans, no vegetables.”

So the filmmaker turned his thoughts about food into food for thought in his 20-minute movie, “Yuck: A 4th Grader’s Short Documentary About School Lunch,” which will be screened Friday at the Manhattan Film Festival.