I Am Interchange

Every town has one. A school. A cafeteria. A lunch line. And somewhere in that line, a kid is staring down a plastic tray of food that — for millions — might be the only real meal they get that day. We don't often think of it this way, but the school meal program is the largest restaurant chain in the United States. Seven billion meals a year. Forty million kids. Bigger than Subway. Bigger than McDonald's. Which makes it the biggest opportunity we have to change how we eat, how we grow food, and how we think about nourishment. When we let the system run on the cheapest, most processed calories, the cost shows up in hospital bills, chronic illness, and communities that can't afford to be healthy. In one of the richest countries in the world, eating clean, non-toxic food has somehow become a luxury. But it shouldn't be. Healthy food should be a right. So how did we get here? How did we build a system where the things that keep us healthy are the hardest to afford, while the things that make us sick are everywhe