How to Write a Petition Regarding School Lunches
Many schools have a program in place to address the lunch needs for their students. Of course, no program is perfect and there will always be areas for improvement. If you feel there needs to be changes to a local school's lunch program, a well-worded petition just may be the answer. This may seem daunting, but creating a petition is considerably easier than it may sound.
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Instructions
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Identify the target of your petition. Are you looking to influence changes in a single school or the entire district? Is your goal to change lunch programs in the entire city, state or country? You need to be certain where you're targeting this petition for it's effectiveness. Once you know what level of administration you're dealing with, you need to select an individual to deliver the petition to. For example, if you want to change lunch programs in a school district, direct it to the district's superintendent.
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Identify the issue your petition is addressing. You must be clear about exactly what you want changed in the schools lunch programs in the body of your petition's request. Make sure that the situation, whatever it may be, is clearly defined. For example, if your request is to see more hot lunches served, then your request should state that clearly.
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Explain why you, and by extension everyone signing the petition, believe that this issue is a problem. Changes to a lunch program can be extensive and potentially costly to a school or a school district. Wherever possible, support your assertions with well researched facts. If you are petitioning for something like the removal of items with high sugar content like soda, be sure to include some relevant facts about the effects of large quantities of sugar on the body.
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Identify a solution to the problem that you, and those signing, will consider an acceptable alternative to the current situation. A petition that presents a potential solution at the very least will inform the recipient of what is expected of them, and open up the floor to potential compromise. An example would be asking for a reduction in trans-fats in the meals provided by the lunch program and offering that less deep-fried foods would accomplish that request.
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Make a sheet for signatures once the body text of your petition is prepared and print as many copies as you feel you'll need. A petition to change a school lunch program may not need thousands of signatures, but making sure you have adequate space for those you'll require, will save you from having to make more copies.
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Tips & Warnings
Remember, keep your petition civil and polite. A petition that is little more like an attack on the recipient may be disregarded simply on the merit of it's hostile nature. Keep in mind that the purpose is to persuade, not to berate.
Depending on the target of the petition, you may need more or less signatures. If you are targeting a single school, simply getting the signatures of a significant percentage of the students' parents might be sufficient. If you are targeting a school district, you may need upwards of 1,000 or more signatures, depending on the size of the district.
Just because you have written a petition, gotten all the signatures you need, and submitted it doesn't mean that the recipient will make the changes. A petition is not a court-ordered motion, is not legally binding, and cannot forcibly compel anyone to comply. It is a collective statement in print. Don't be too discouraged if it doesn't go as planned.
