Schools around the world participated in Mix It Up at Lunch Day 2009. In preparation for Mix It Up 2010, keep coming back to this page for updates, add your school to our Mix It Up Map, and download the Mix It Up Survey (PDF).
The event is a simple call to action: take a new seat in the cafeteria. By making the move, students can cross the invisible lines of school division, meet new people and make new friends.
Mix it Up at Lunch Day helps students become more comfortable interacting with different kinds of people.
Watch students at Lawndale High School address their issues of social and racial tensions.
According to Mix It Up at Lunch Day organizers who responded to a 2008 survey conducted by Quality Education Data, the Mix It Up program produces powerful results:
- 97% of respondents said students' interactions were positive during Mix It Up at Lunch Day.
- 95% of respondents said Mix It Up at Lunch Day prompted students to interact with people outside of their normal social circles.
- 92% of respondents said Mix It Up at Lunch Day increased awareness about social boundaries and divisions within school.
- 83% of respondents said the event helped students make new friends.
- 79% of respondents said as a result of the Day students have heightened sensitivity towards tolerance and social justice issues.
- 78% of the respondents said as a result of the Day students seem more comfortable interacting with different kinds of people.
Teachers and students need to work together to organize Mix It Up at Lunch Day. The administrative challenges of working in school settings mean adults need to be involved in Mix Day planning. Student involvement is crucial to help generate peer participation. By working together, students and teachers can create real change.
These students at Fordson High School in Dearborn, Mich., focused on acknowledging their classmates who may sometimes be "invisible" to them.
Organization tips for teachers:
- Use our downloadable posters and other materials in combination with your own banners to promote the day around your school.
- Use the Mix It Up Survey (PDF) to see what social boundaries exist at your school.
- Pull together a group of students who also want to challenge the social boundaries at school and form a planning committee.
- Ask administrators to put Mix It Up at Lunch Day on the school calendar.
- Meet with the cafeteria staff to help organize the events.
- Be creative. Everyone takes a lunch period in school, even if it's not in the cafeteria. If you have an open campus, for example, encourage students to have lunch with a different group while off campus and report back on their experiences.
- Create rewards and incentives for work to honor students who participate.