School lunches in 2025 are having a radical makeover, serving food that students are excited to eat. Today’s lunchboxes show how much has changed in just a few years, with old staples giving way to ginger chicken, roasted beet crisps and mango-chili smoothies. These new offerings reflect broader trends toward global flavors, plant-forward choices and stricter federal nutrition rules.

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From local lettuce to citrus grown just miles away, some school districts are sourcing from nearby farms to serve fresher meals. This shift represents one part of a larger transformation that examines both the meals and the systems driving the changes around them.

The state of the lunchbox in 2025

Before we unpack what’s in today’s lunchbox, let’s consider just how massive this

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