Collectively, we know very little about the institutional policies and practices of nutrition education in American schools, much less what happens in complex, dynamic, and disproportionately unhealthy urban environments. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the institutional policies and practices of one urban school district regarding nutrition education from the perspectives of physical education and health teachers. We used interpretivist ethnographic (Denzin, 1997) methodologies to examine the perspectives of 27 (17 Males, 10 females; 11 Caucasians, 16 African Americans; 1-37 years of experience) middle school teachers over two years. Teachers were involved in a larger project aimed at increasing the wellness of urban youth through improved health and physical education programs. Data were collected through extensive class, school, and in-service observations, document analysis, and formal and informal interviews. Data were analyzed using constant comparison and analytic induction, while trustworthiness techniques included researcher journals, peer debriefers, triangulation, negative case analyses, and member checks. We found two distinct policies and practices embedded in the school district that constrained nutrition education for urban children. First, we found that the district lacked any form of top-down coherent mandate for educating children regarding nutrition. No teacher knew, nor was there an official document stating: who is responsible for teaching nutrition in middle schools, the content that should be taught, and the materials that should be used. In addition, the district provided no in-service for teachers to build upon the poor nutrition education training they received during teacher preparation. This led teachers for the most part to neglect nutrition instruction altogether, or, under rare conditions when they did teach it, they used out-of-date materials, questionable on-line resources, and lacked the resources needed for adequate instruction. Second, we found that despite having vending machines removed from their schools for nutrition purposes, the widespread practice of vending non-nutritious food to children remained alive and well, it simply moved “underground.” Teachers themselves sold junk food to students under the guise of fund raisers, allowed students to use faculty vending machines, or used junk food to bribe students into certain roles and behaviors. Teachers drew an unsophisticated distinction between bribery and incentives to justify their practices. The discussion centers on the need for top down institutional clarity for nutrition expectations and policies, adequate instructional resources, in-service for poorly trained teachers, and surveillance of the underground nutrition practices enacted by teachers that undercut wider policy initiatives. Keyword(s): middle school issues, nutrition