Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Feb 27, 2015 15:35:47 GMT -5
I thought of this thread when looking at the school lunch menu. The lunch flyer was announcing that March is healthy eating month.
Today's lunch? A hot pocket.
Oh the irony. . Today was hot dog/brat day for mine. And I thought of this thread too. Oh, and the kids were eating fresh spinach as part of dinner last night. They even asked for more of it.
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t-dog
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Post by t-dog on Feb 27, 2015 16:19:31 GMT -5
The other aspect of school lunch - the number of kids on free/reduced lunch determines how much funding the school gets for academic help programs....WHY??
My kid isn't on free/reduced lunch program, but newsflash government types....kids who can afford to bring lunch or buy it at full price need academic help too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*walking away before blood pressure spikes again over this issue* I believe you are referring to the Title 1 program. Schools that qualify for Title 1 status have high levels of poverty within the student body and poverty is connected to low levels of academic achievement, which is why Title 1 schools receive additional funding support. My daughter attends a Title 1 school where 53% of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch. There were some parents who were outraged and wanted to know what we could do to get the number below 50%. The other parents (myself included) and teachers don't want it to drop because then we'll lose our funding. Title 1 has paid for a science teacher, a computer lab, para-professionals and a weekly after-school tutorial program. There's a solid middle and upper-middle class component in our school but there are also students living in abject poverty who definitely need additional academic support. This is my point - my kids school doesn't have enough kids on free/reduced lunch to qualify for that kind of funding - doesn't mean the kids don't deserve the same kind of academic help your kids are getting.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 27, 2015 17:22:01 GMT -5
I haven't read the entire thread, but the SDE set standards for school lunches that include no fried foods, etc. Even the French fries are baked. The most popular food item is edame. Grab-and-go salads are also very popular.
But the kids hate the food in general. I think that's just the nature of cafeteria food. We have six food bars (Home cooking, salad bar, Mexican, Sandwiches, Pizza, and one other that I forget but which seems to always have chicken fingers, mashed potatoes, and green beans), and the kids hate them.
I actually like the home cooking bar, but we have last lunch out of six and 2500 students. There's nothing good left so I don't go.
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Formerly SK
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Post by Formerly SK on Feb 27, 2015 20:33:43 GMT -5
I believe you are referring to the Title 1 program. Schools that qualify for Title 1 status have high levels of poverty within the student body and poverty is connected to low levels of academic achievement, which is why Title 1 schools receive additional funding support. My daughter attends a Title 1 school where 53% of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch. There were some parents who were outraged and wanted to know what we could do to get the number below 50%. The other parents (myself included) and teachers don't want it to drop because then we'll lose our funding. Title 1 has paid for a science teacher, a computer lab, para-professionals and a weekly after-school tutorial program. There's a solid middle and upper-middle class component in our school but there are also students living in abject poverty who definitely need additional academic support. This is my point - my kids school doesn't have enough kids on free/reduced lunch to qualify for that kind of funding - doesn't mean the kids don't deserve the same kind of academic help your kids are getting. If you think a Title 1 school has all these extra perks, you could always put your kid in one to take advantage of them. Not too many people use boundary exceptions to get into a Title school voluntarily - usually people are trying everything to get out of them. Must have something to do with the fact that the additional reading specialist you're so jealous of isn't enough to compete with 2/3s of a class being unable to read.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Mar 1, 2015 9:45:46 GMT -5
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seriousthistime
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Post by seriousthistime on Mar 1, 2015 12:10:58 GMT -5
I think there are two different problems here. One is making healthy options kids will eat. Truthfully the tide is turning IMO. I have given out soda for halloween for years. Every year a number of kids will politely say no thank you to the soda. About 5 years ago I added juice boxes so the little ones would have something they would drink. Then past few years I have also put out bottles of water because so many kids are turning down the soda. The parents are actually around most of the time and telling the kids the soda is okay but the kids are saying no I really prefer the water. So it is changing it just probably won't happen over night. The second part of the problem is cost. Does anyone remember that show with Jamie Oliver? I think the schools that did it actually had the kids loving the food. The problem was they couldn't afford to keep doing it for $1.65 a meal. The rules for things the USDA pushes also make it very difficult for schools to buck the system. If the USDA is subsidizing processed chicken, and it is, the schools that accept money from the gov for lunches basically have to buy that processed chicken no matter what. So my questions are could the gov make a real change that gets healthy food in the schools without lobbyists ? Because there is big money in selling processed chicken crap to our schools!! The second question is could the schools do it alone for an amount that people could pay for their child's lunch while being healthy? I agree with this. When I was a kid, we had women who worked in the cafeteria and they prepared food from scratch. Nowadays, it's prepared off site by a contracted food service company and brought in, and just served by people at the school cafeterias. My kids attended school in Italy when we lived there. School went from 8 to 5, lunch was two hours long, and the food was served in courses with bottled water to drink. It looked as delicious as the picture shows, but it was not served on a lunch tray. It must have been expensive to do it that way. By serving it in courses, kids ate the nutritious foods first when they were most hungry. They didn't know what else was going to be served, so better to eat what's there rather than wait to see what else was coming. U.S. schools have no financial incentive to do it any differently than they are now.
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imanangel
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Post by imanangel on Mar 1, 2015 13:16:50 GMT -5
We also force the kids to take food that they have no intention of eating because they have to have on their plate the items recommended in the food pyramid. My kid can't even buy lunch at school because he is not allowed grain or dairy for medical reasons. He would be perfectly content just getting a salad every day but he MUST have on his plate food that will make him sick or he can't buy lunch period. What an enormous waste! Anyone who calls ketchup a vegetable has no business regulating what kids eat. I am surprised the school makes him take things he is allergic to. Where I work, the nurse goes around and reminds students with food allergies what they should not put on their plates. She even gives them little notes so they don't forget.
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t-dog
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Post by t-dog on Mar 2, 2015 14:29:43 GMT -5
Yep - he would have to take food that he medically can't eat unless I want to enter into the hell of trying to get an exemption through the district nutrition services. Process generally takes about a year.
As for services at a Title 1 school, my point is that all kids need academic services and my kids school gets NONE - how about a base level since generally there are kids who need help at every school in this country. Literally, school 5 miles away has 700,000 a year to use to provide services, my kids school gets $0 - yep a big fat NOTHING. you can't tell me that no kid at the school needs academic support despite whether or not they have the ability to eat at home. Yes, kids at the other school have some challenges that mine doesn't, but for goodness sake tying the issues together doesn't necessarily result in a resolution of both problems.
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Mar 2, 2015 14:51:54 GMT -5
As for services at a Title 1 school, my point is that all kids need academic services and my kids school gets NONE - how about a base level since generally there are kids who need help at every school in this country. Literally, school 5 miles away has 700,000 a year to use to provide services, my kids school gets $0 - yep a big fat NOTHING. you can't tell me that no kid at the school needs academic support despite whether or not they have the ability to eat at home. Yes, kids at the other school have some challenges that mine doesn't, but for goodness sake tying the issues together doesn't necessarily result in a resolution of both problems. There is a base level of funding that all schools receive. Additional dollars are provided for schools that have high levels of poverty within the student body. To be honest, I can't really understand your issue with the program (beyond the usual arguments about spending tax dollars). Do you believe that there isn't a correlation between poverty and academic achievement?
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MJ2.0
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Post by MJ2.0 on Mar 2, 2015 15:30:22 GMT -5
DS eats broccoli, green beans, baby carrots, grilled chicken, turkey meatballs, wheat/veggie pasta, peanuts, grapes, apples, bananas, strawberries.... and chicken nuggets, graham crackers, goldfish (that's like a baby junk food IMO), chips (on occasion), fries, hot dogs, PB&J, pizza, and cookies (small pieces). I make sure he gets in at least one veggie and one fruit per day when I have him, and I make sure he's eaten most or all of the vegetable/fruit serving before getting any seconds or leaving the table. I've also been dialing back on the apple juice and giving more milk and water... OJ in the morning. It's hard making elaborate and healthy meals when you're short on time and money.
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973beachbum
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Post by 973beachbum on Mar 2, 2015 17:50:59 GMT -5
As for services at a Title 1 school, my point is that all kids need academic services and my kids school gets NONE - how about a base level since generally there are kids who need help at every school in this country. Literally, school 5 miles away has 700,000 a year to use to provide services, my kids school gets $0 - yep a big fat NOTHING. you can't tell me that no kid at the school needs academic support despite whether or not they have the ability to eat at home. Yes, kids at the other school have some challenges that mine doesn't, but for goodness sake tying the issues together doesn't necessarily result in a resolution of both problems. There is a base level of funding that all schools receive. Additional dollars are provided for schools that have high levels of poverty within the student body. To be honest, I can't really understand your issue with the program (beyond the usual arguments about spending tax dollars). Do you believe that there isn't a correlation between poverty and academic achievement?I thought it also I thought it also had to do with schools with higher populations of low income students normally don't have the tax base to support those programs on their own. And my kids school used to be a title 1 district. They did get extras paid by the Fed and state but believe me that had some major strings attached and sometimes the money actually caused more problems than it solved. But I doubt anyone here would want their kid to go to a school built in 1890 with 1920 electrical and a 1940's roof. HVAC was really more of an overstatement than reality. In the district we are in now those type of programs are paid for with township tax dollars. While there are people who don't want to pay school taxes at all the vast majority feel that the well preforming schools are an important part as to why this area is so desirable to live in.
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t-dog
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Post by t-dog on Mar 2, 2015 19:15:46 GMT -5
As for services at a Title 1 school, my point is that all kids need academic services and my kids school gets NONE - how about a base level since generally there are kids who need help at every school in this country. Literally, school 5 miles away has 700,000 a year to use to provide services, my kids school gets $0 - yep a big fat NOTHING. you can't tell me that no kid at the school needs academic support despite whether or not they have the ability to eat at home. Yes, kids at the other school have some challenges that mine doesn't, but for goodness sake tying the issues together doesn't necessarily result in a resolution of both problems. There is a base level of funding that all schools receive. Additional dollars are provided for schools that have high levels of poverty within the student body. To be honest, I can't really understand your issue with the program (beyond the usual arguments about spending tax dollars). Do you believe that there isn't a correlation between poverty and academic achievement? Nope, I do believe there is a correlation but that doesn't rule out that kids not living in poverty need academic help as well. I presume you don't think any kid above the poverty line is automatically an academic all star or that we should only provide assistance to kids below the poverty line. My DS' school gets a whopping .25 per student per day to run the school, kid not in school for the day the school loses that $.25 for that day. They get no federal funding of any kind, yes I have seen the budget. CA isn't exactly flush with sending $$ to the schools. So I think the frustration is the constant assertion by administration that because we don't have enough kids who need assistance in getting meals why in heavens name would we need any kind of academic assistance programs? - the kids can eat so surely they are all understanding everything presented with no issues academically. Is my kid living in abject poverty - nope. Is my kid an academic all star - nope. Does my kid, because he isn't poor, have any less of an academic need for assistance as the kid 3 miles away - nope but his academic needs are poo-pooed because he isn't poor.
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jkapp
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Post by jkapp on Mar 2, 2015 19:22:33 GMT -5
[ according to the interpretation of the person who was inspecting all lunch boxes in the More at Four classroom that day. [.....Goddamn government! [/quote] This had nothing to do with 'government'...[/quote][/p]
Yes it did, that's why I left this section copied in as well:
The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs — including in-home day care centers — to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home.
--Those two agencies don't sound like a local non-profit to me...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2015 8:10:35 GMT -5
It DID meet guidelines. This was all about the 'interpretation' of the moron on duty... The guidelines weren't the issue...
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on Mar 3, 2015 8:11:41 GMT -5
[ according to the interpretation of the person who was inspecting all lunch boxes in the More at Four classroom that day. [.....Goddamn government! This had nothing to do with 'government'...
Yes it did, that's why I left this section copied in as well:
The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs — including in-home day care centers — to meet USDA guidelines. That means lunches must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables, even if the lunches are brought from home.
--Those two agencies don't sound like a local non-profit to me...
Yes, but interpretation of those guidelines is done locally. But whomever is tasked with that at the local school. So someone had a bee in their bonnet that day. I don't spend a lot of time in my kids' school. I do some fieldtrips now and then though on my first field trip I did see the teacher in K4 pull a student's lunch. It consisted of a gal. ziplock of Chex mix and a big bottle of cheap soda/fruit drink. Teacher swapped it out for a lunchable type thing and told him that he could eat some for dessert once he finished the lunchable type meal. One of the other parents pointed it out to the teacher, quietly. ETA - I'm trying to fix the quoting.
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Mar 3, 2015 10:08:27 GMT -5
Nope, I do believe there is a correlation but that doesn't rule out that kids not living in poverty need academic help as well. I presume you don't think any kid above the poverty line is automatically an academic all star or that we should only provide assistance to kids below the poverty line. My DS' school gets a whopping .25 per student per day to run the school, kid not in school for the day the school loses that $.25 for that day. They get no federal funding of any kind, yes I have seen the budget. CA isn't exactly flush with sending $$ to the schools. So I think the frustration is the constant assertion by administration that because we don't have enough kids who need assistance in getting meals why in heavens name would we need any kind of academic assistance programs? - the kids can eat so surely they are all understanding everything presented with no issues academically. Is my kid living in abject poverty - nope. Is my kid an academic all star - nope. Does my kid, because he isn't poor, have any less of an academic need for assistance as the kid 3 miles away - nope but his academic needs are poo-pooed because he isn't poor. I do understand your point about many children needing academic assistance who are not poor; and alternatively my middle class child is receiving academic benefits that she may not actually 'need'. Large scale programs are by their very nature, inflexible. This is simply a way to get additional academic help to large clusters of poor children - it is certainly a blunt tool. As I mentioned, my daughter's school has 53% of the population receiving free lunch but there are many others in Atlanta where it's 90%+ on free lunches. I had a meeting with someone from Atlanta Public Schools who was telling me that in a local elementary, 95% of the families are surviving on annual incomes below $10,000. These students have so many problems both at home and in the classroom and the Title I money is trying to provide some assistance.
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t-dog
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Post by t-dog on Mar 3, 2015 15:55:23 GMT -5
gs11rmb I get that large scale programs miss large swathes - its just infuriating to see a kid who is on the cusp, i.e. he is going to fall either on the I give up side or realize he can achieve, be completely ignored. The point of those kinds of programs is to move more to the I can achieve ranks, but we are missing another decently sized group by tying academic help to the ability to pay for food.
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Mar 4, 2015 10:02:40 GMT -5
t-dog- I certainly can understand your frustration. I'm not sure there's a way to address this issue that wouldn't involve so much detail and research to be cost prohibitive.
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t-dog
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Post by t-dog on Mar 4, 2015 12:39:16 GMT -5
Sure there is - send the money to local districts and leave DC out of it. Ok likely not a total solution, but at least the folks making the decision would have a real understanding of the district and its students.
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