Youth Empowered in the Struggle (Y.E.S.) is an organization made up of immigrant, multi-racial, working class students that organize to improve their schools and communities.

Y.E.S. surveyed over one thousand students across Milwaukee Public Schools and identified that the poor quality of school lunch is the most pressing issue that must be addressed to improve our school environment. Our lunches are cooked in a central location and distributed to the schools to be reheated, resulting in undercooked food and of substandard quality. This is not acceptable! Y.E.S. believes every student in Milwaukee deserves to have access to nutritious, delicious, culturally appropriate foods in school so that they are better able to learn.

We demand that Milwaukee Public Schools:

1. Provide fresh school lunch that is cooked at the school by food service staff with locally sourced ingredients.
2. Provide more lunch options simultaneously.
3. Put a system in place that identifies and accommodates students' personal, religious, and medical dietary needs.
4. Provide larger, more filling meals that leave students feeling ready to learn, instead of hungry.
5. Hire more lunch staff to cook the meals and increase their wages.
6. MPS Board of Directors establish regular meetings with YES members to ensure these demands are met and implemented with student voices at the table.

Sign onto this petition to express your support for our demands.