Filmmaker's Hit Documentary Exposes Sad State of NYC School Lunches -- and He's Only 11-Years-Old

It's the kind of fact-finding mission that health-conscious Mayor Michael Bloomberg would typically salivate over—except that his city's public school meals are the subject.

The flick is called "Yuck: A 4th Grader’s Documentary About School Lunch," and it's become quite the hit: It's an entrant in several film festivals (including the Manhattan Film Festival this Friday) and its creator, 11-year-old Zachary Maxwell, just appeared on "Good Morning America."

(Credit: GMA)

By way of his own camera work, Maxwell compared dozens descriptions of his school's lunch menu items...

(Credit: GMA)

...with what he was actually served.

(Credit: GMA)

“It sounded like it was coming from the finest restaurant, but what we were actually getting served, it wasn’t too good,” Zachary told ABC News.

(Credit: GMA)

Now in 5th grade, Maxwell says of his 19-minute flick's success: “I think it’s a lot cooler than just watching it on a little TV screen,” Zachary said on “Good Morning America.”

More from GMA:

The New York City Department of Education visited Zachary’s school after his film began circulating and says officials, “Provide students with healthy and delicious school meals that are low in fat, sodium and calories and we currently have more than 1,000 salad bars in our schools to provide more healthful options to students.”

Zachary’s father, CJ Maxwell, who helped the budding filmmaker put this documentary together, says he couldn’t be prouder of his son, a student at Public School 130 in the Little Italy section of Manhattan.

(Credit: GMA)

“I think that he showed a lot of little spunk and spirit and we encouraged him to keep at it,” Maxwell  said.

Zachary admits while he was working on his undercover documentary, he was worried he’d get in trouble.

“Every day I was nervous I’d get in trouble, or worse, get suspended,” he said. [...]

After he gets to middle school, Zachary said, he also has future plans for a documentary about “adolescence, puberty, and what middle school girls think about guys with braces.”

“When I grow up,” he said, laughing, “I want to be a big-shot filmmaker.”

Here's the segment from ABC's "Good Morning America":

And here's the doc's trailer:

Featured image via GMA screenshot.

--

[related]