STATE OF OPPORTUNITY. Can Kids in Michigan Get Ahead?
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This special reporting project wrapped up in May 2017. Read more.

What it takes to feed 200 kids, twice a day (better hope it's not a taco day)

Dustin Dwyer

Tomorrow, on State of Opportunity, we’re airing a new documentary, called The Big Test.

To report the documentary, I spent six weeks in the fall following a group of third grade students at Congress Elementary in Grand Rapids. Congress has low test scores, and we wanted to know what you might miss if you only focus on those scores.

In my six weeks at Congress, I gathered far more audio than we'll ever be able to air. So today, as a preview to tomorrow's documentary, we bring you a sort of deleted scene.  

Credit Dustin Dwyer
Almost all of the students at Congress Elementary get their first meal of the day here.

It’s a glimpse into one of the most overlooked aspects of any school’s operations: The lunch room.

Be sure to tune in to the full documentary, The Big Test, tomorrow at 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. 

(Or, subscribe to State of Opportunity on iTunes and listen whenever you want!)

Dustin Dwyer is a reporter on the State of Opportunity project, based in Grand Rapids. Previously, he worked as an online journalist for Changing Gears, as a freelance reporter and as Michigan Radio's West Michigan Reporter. Before he joined Michigan Radio, Dustin interned at NPR's Talk of the Nation, wrote freelance stories for The Jackson Citizen-Patriot and completed a Reporting & Writing Fellowship at the Poynter Institute.