U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., center, helps serve lunch with cafeteria manager Samantha Atkins-Estrada and Austin ISD Executive Director of Food Service and Warehouse Operations Ryan Mikolayciok during a tour of the kitchen at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. Kennedy visited the campus to discuss federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
When U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Austin Independent School District on Friday to learn more about the district’s school lunch program, parents protested his “very unhealthy” views and lack of support for schools.
Kennedy, who oversees the federal Department of Health and Human Services, toured the cafeteria of Cunningham Elementary in South Austin as part of his efforts to promote whole foods and healthy school lunch programs. While there, he celebrated lawmakers’ recent efforts to boost the Make America Health Again, or MAHA movement.
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The visit sparked backlash and concern from campus families, about 30 of whom marched outside Cunningham to protest his anti-vaccination views and other health policies that many medical experts say aren’t based in science.
During a tour of Cunningham’s cafeteria, Ryan Mikolaycik, Austin ISD’s executive director of food services and warehouse operations, described how the district’s decade-long food service initiative is unique in prioritizing locally-sourced foods, low waste and preparing as much of a meal “scratch,” or on-campus, as possible. He said the district reduces waste and costs by cutting down on the number of containers and utensils given out in each meal.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., center, listens to Austin ISD Executive Director of Food Service and Warehouse Operations Ryan Mikolayciok and AISD Executive Chef Diane Grodek during a tour of the kitchen at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. Kennedy visited the campus to discuss federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Sarah Espiritu, center, demonstrates outside Cunningham Elementary School during a visit by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. During the visit, Kennedy toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. washes his hands before helping to serve lunch during a tour of the kitchen at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. Kennedy visited the campus to discuss federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. puts on his apron before helping to serve lunch during a tour of the kitchen at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. Kennedy visited the campus to discuss federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visits students during lunch in the cafeteria at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. He toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visits students during lunch in the cafeteria at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. He toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
A protester who asked to be identified only as J.R. demonstrates outside Cunningham Elementary School during a visit by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. During the visit, Kennedy toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Austin ISD Director of Food Service Operations Linley Danner hangs a poster in the cafeteria ahead of a visit by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. During the visit, Kennedy toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., center, arrives for a visit at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. During the visit, he toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., center, arrives for a visit at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. During the visit, he toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. greets Principal Stacy Foss as he arrives for a visit at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. During the visit, he toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Catharine Wall demonstrates outside Cunningham Elementary School during a visit by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. During the visit, Kennedy toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., center, listens to Austin ISD Executive Director of Food Service and Warehouse Operations Ryan Mikolayciok and AISD Executive Chef Diane Grodek during a tour of the kitchen at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. Kennedy visited the campus to discuss federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tours the kitchen at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. Kennedy visited the campus to discuss federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
The lunch menu is displayed in the kitchen at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visits students during lunch in the cafeteria at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. He toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
Jenny Medford demonstrates outside Cunningham Elementary School during a visit by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. During the visit, Kennedy toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., right, listens to Austin ISD Executive Director of Food Service and Warehouse Operations Ryan Mikolayciok during a tour of the kitchen at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. Kennedy visited the campus to discuss federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visits students during lunch in the cafeteria at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. He toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
But Mikolaycik also raised a concern that that the federal government only reimburses the district about $4.50 per meal.
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“That has to cover labor, equipment,” Mikolaycik said. “It really shrinks down to 30% of that goes to food. Its $1.25 per meal and that includes a protein, a fruit, a vegetable, a dairy.”
Mikolaycik’s comment about costs came in response to Kennedy’s question about whether the district regularly served foods like chicken with sauces and without breading. Kennedy nodded as he listened but did not directly respond to the concern.
On Friday, district officials showed Kennedy a frito pie, steamed broccoli, berries, apples, salads, peppers and cucumbers that students could choose from for lunch. Kennedy touted the food program at Cunningham as a model for other schools and said that American children aren’t healthy enough.
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U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visits students during lunch in the cafeteria at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. He toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
“It’s not because American kids suddenly got indolent or lazy or hungry,” Kennedy said. “It’s because we’re poisoning them at a mass scale.”
The district could have invited the health secretary to any school in Austin ISD to showcase the food service program, because the strategy is district-wide, Mikolaycik said.
“The reason we’re able to do more is because we have a larger team, which allows us to procure the foods,” Mikolaycik said. “We have a chef. We have a dietitian. Some small districts don’t have that.”
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Over the past 10 years, the district has worked to source ingredients from local or regional farms and shifted to making some items on campus when practical, Austin ISD’s Chief Operations Officer Christine Steenport said. With more funding, the district could do even more, she said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture develops the food pyramid and school lunch guidelines but collaborates with HHS. Kennedy has taken a special interest in healthy school lunches as part of his MAHA initiative.
The health secretary also expressed support Friday for Texas’ own 2025 MAHA law, which required food manufacturers to put a warning label on products made with certain additives and dyes. Kennedy joined Gov. Greg Abbott last August at the legislation’s signing.
“They’re getting the food dyes out of the school lunches, the toxins,” Kennedy said. Children are unhealthy “because they were eating bad foods.”
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Vegetables are offered in the lunch line at Cunningham Elementary School in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy during a visit to the campus.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
School lunches are generally much healthier than they were 20 years ago, and programs like the one in Austin ISD provide even more benefit to students, said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association, a national nonprofit that advocates for workers in the school nutrition industry.
“Kids are far more likely to try an unfamiliar fruit or vegetable if they’re involved in growing it,” Pratt-Heavner said.
Today’s school lunches and breakfasts meet whole grain and sodium limits, but often aren’t prepared wholly on campus because of cost, time, space, equipment and personnel constraints faced by school districts, she said.
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Protein — which was heavily emphasized in the newly revised food pyramid, released last month — also tends to be more expensive, Pratt-Heavner said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which writes school lunch standards, hasn’t yet released new lunch standards in response to the health guidelines.
For millions of Texas students, the quality of a school lunch is tremendously important because they rely on that in-school meal to fill them up. Feeding America estimated that in 2023 that almost 1.7 million Texas children experienced food insecurity. Last year, public schools served on average about 3.2 million free lunches and 1.7 million free breakfasts per day, according to the Texas Department of Agriculture. The federal government reimbursed Texas for $2.8 billion for school nutrition.
Parents protest Kennedy’s visit
Sarah Espiritu demonstrates outside Cunningham Elementary School during a visit by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Austin on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. During the visit, Kennedy toured the school’s kitchen facilities and spoke about federal dietary guidelines and nutrition policy.
Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman
During Kennedy’s tour inside Cunningham Elementary, a group of 30 parents and community members protested his visit outside the school. They booed and yelled “shame” as two unmarked cars that they assumed carried Kennedy drove out of the parking lot at the end of his visit. Only a small handful of parents agreed to let their children be photographed by media as part of the event.
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Some parents said they wished Austin ISD had declined the visit, while others said they felt like the district and school were trying to navigate a difficult situation. The federal department reached out to Austin ISD and asked to visit, according to the district.
Julia Ross, who loves Cunningham for her fourth grader, felt angry that Kennedy came to the school for what felt to her like a photo opportunity.
“It’s so disingenuous for them to claim credit for a program that’s thriving in spite of lack of support,” Ross said. “Schools are in survival mode. They’re spread so thin. They’re having to make impossible decisions.”
Karan Shirk kept her grandson home from prekindergarten at Cunningham on Friday because of the secretary’s visit.
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“He stands, to many of us, for things that are very unhealthy and very unsavory and very frightening,” Shirk said.
Health and medical experts find Kennedy controversial because of his longtime anti-vaccine beliefs, including a claim widely debunked by medical research that vaccines cause autism.
Though Kennedy on Friday said “we encourage people to comply with the vaccine schedule,” last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — which falls under the Kennedy’s department — removed seven immunizations from its universal recommendations for children.
These vaccines — which include immunizations for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, COVID-19 and the flu — are now only recommended for children at high risk of serious illness, which runs contrary to guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The CDC also labeled some vaccines as requiring “shared decision making” rather than “required,” which is also contrary to academy. Funding for vaccine research has been slashed under Kennedy’s leadership.
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Kennedy appeared at a press conference in September with President Donald Trump claiming that acetaminophen, a pain reliever found in Tylenol, could cause autism in babies if taken by pregnant mothers. This claim was widely criticized by doctors and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a professional association.
In the past school year, Austin ISD kindergarteners had vaccination rates between 74% and 84%, depending on the immunization, according to Texas Department of State Health Services data. Seventh graders had a higher vaccination rate between 85% and 97%, depending on the vaccine.
Austin ISD has a right to be proud of their school lunch program, which is exceptional at Cunningham, Shirk said. But she and other families were “just outraged that the AISD and our sweet little home school is hosting someone we consider so dangerous,” she said.
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