Children are seen by all the world’s cultures as a blessing; food is universally recognized as the staff of life. Put them together, however, and you have the stuff of deepest conflict. In this Food Issue, we offer dispatches from the embattled family table, that contested terrain where our children take aim at us, and we at ourselves. Our survey includes photographs of breakfast around the world; an inside account of the Washington fight over the government’s role in school lunch; a look at snacktime, when a bag of candy can make us feel like a child again; and dinner, a.k.a. ground zero, the meal that can bring peace or madness. Consume it all in good health, but please take your dishes to the sink when you’re done.