Amen to this, sister!

And, if I might add to that list – give school districts some money for real staffing of those kitchens. one of the reasons school districts feel crap processed foods is that they don’t have the money to staff the kitchens with enough people to really prepare and cook REAL food. Hence, the use of things like chicken nuggest etc.

and, let’s not forget the Breakfast Programs. For a lot of kids, they would not get anything before noon if they didn’t get breakfast at school.

That’s fed funding?

OH..I don’t know, Barbara. I’ll have to go trot off and see what I can find out…

http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/breakfast/
Yep..fed money.
School breakfasts must meet the applicable recommendations of the Dietary Guidelines for
Americans which recommend that no more than 30 percent of an individual’s calories come from fat,
and less than 10 percent from saturated fat. In addition, breakfasts must provide one-fourth of the
Recommended Dietary Allowance for protein, calcium, iron, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and calories.
The decisions about what specific food to serve and how they are prepared are made by local school
food authorities.
The current (July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009)
basic cash reimbursement rates for non-severe need are:
Free breakfasts $1.40
Reduced-price breakfasts $1.10
Paid breakfasts $0.25

Good Morning Ladies and Gents,
This topic is so important, I just asked digg to send me the password that I have long ago forgotten.
Survival. The first order of business.
Kids can’t learn if they are hungry, and worried.
And, we have been told to take care of each other.

Many school districts have centralized kitchens with prepared foods shipped to the local schools. Does this not work?
218 hrs & 16 min

Lordy, you’re fast! Thanks for the info. I am 100% behind this, but can’t see how it will get anywhere near top billing re funding in a country that adores children before they’re born, but afterwards? Not so much,

Wouldn’t it be cool if there were check-offs on tax returns for more than political funding? Let’s see. Do I want my dollar to go toward a multi-billion dollar warchest for a campaign process run amok, or do I want it to feed hungry children. Hmmmm. Thinking.

Mike – it’s my understanding that the programs as they are constituted NOW only pay for food – NOT for personnel. Since staff is the highest cost, school districts have cut their staffing to the bone, so they tend to depend highly on processed junk like chicken nuggest. Yes, I know there is this thought that you have to feed kids this stuff or they throw it away(that has been disproved but), but in large part it is driven by lowering the number of people who are needed to put foot on a plate for a child.

Oh the link to change my password in the email doesn’t work. I’ll try again after coffee.

I really like the way you think.

Yes but can a large central kitchen serve decent food to several schools?
Especially in urban areas it seems as though there would be significant savings in staff, Equipment, etc.
218 hrs & 5 min

food security is a huge issue – one that has been made much worse in the world by our trade and foreign polices. as we think about safety nets for our own kids, i just want to throw out a mention that we should stop undermining safety nets in other countries.

Merci.

Staff expenses are in the limelight here in Pinellas County. A review of the school board showed that our school board pays out more in “general administration” expenses than any other county in the state. Seems the superintendent and staff have run amok and are eating up a ton of money that could better be spent elsewhere in the system.

Mike – I really don’t know. the only ‘central kitchen’ example I am familiar with is Dunkin Donuts in our area here – they tried doing the baking centrally and found a) that the quality suffered from ‘time from baking to delivery to store to customer purchase’ and b) that with the need for delivery trucks to the stores going literally every hour on the hour, they did not save money. So, they put the bakers back in the stores. But that is only in my area. I don’t know what they do elsewhere.
And I don’t know what large urban school districts DO.

I like the way you think too.
We have good thinkers at the Lake.

Have the funding tied to nutrition certification for the person overseeing the kitchen/food distribution in schools. Also look into the possibility of localized food co-ops that supply the schools.

I know a school district here in NJ that has food brought in and the parents go and supervise the distribution of the food. It’s fast food. Not healthy.

Major uptick in transportation costs, though. I keep wondering whether this is the kind of thing American community service could undergird. Volunteers. Not to do the planning, buying, cooking necessarily, but certainly the delivering, serving, clean-up.

A visual etched into my eyeballs for all time was an up-close color photo in my high school newspaper of a school lunch on one of the ubiquitous trays. Mashed potatoes and gravy, peas and mystery meat of some sort. The caption read, “Many parts of a school lunch are edible.”

I’m guessing it’s a hard sell for some/most kids to adapt to “good” food. Most of ‘em would rather have nuggets. So the next step would be…?

Digg it.

My eldest works for the county Coop. Extension and I know she has been talking to school districts about working with local farmers. She also started another big farmer’s market in a local central park and arranged for local bus service to get there. Things can be done.

Right you are. Isn’t childhood obesity a huge (pardon me) problem?
If so many parents don’t feed their kids healthy food, perhaps school is the only place they can get it.

Dugg

That’s a model that people can follow. Perhaps submitting that at change.org will help. It’s a real time example of what works.

Good morning Christy and Pups.

I love these recent series of yours, Christy. There’s so much we can do to help the needy if we just put our heads together, and then share the results of the brain-storming.

Selise (15), I don’t know if we’re both thinking along the same lines or not, but ever since the pet-food scares and the loss of control we seem to have suffered over the quality of our food safety in this country, I have just been holding my breath. I can’t help worrying that the next big awful thing could involve government-sponsored school meals. It seems that, even before the melamine scares and such, school lunch programs were routinely allotted the substandard and surplus, the stuff no one else will buy, without enough attention given to safety and good nutrition. It was like that decades ago, and I can’t imagine the situation has improved under bushco.

Morning all — my granny was a school cook for close to 25 years of her life. It was from her, and my parents and other grandparents, that I learned to love cooking heathy, whole foods from our garden and local markets. We’ve really gotten away from that in this country — myself included, for a while I fell into the quick and easy defrost something full of crap trap. And we are all living with the consequences of that decision — childhood obesity is through the roof these days. (It doesn’t help that most schools have also cut back on gym class because of NCLB testing requirements.)

We have got to start looking at long-term solutions, not just what’s cheaper in the moment — but what’s most cost effective over the long haul.

Good morning every one !

Looking at several inches of fresh snow on my driveway
Any body wanna help me shovel?

Christy I work in a group home for boys and can tell you that good nutrition is extremely important.
There are the obvious benefits of course ,but good nutrition also help with behavior.
When the kids are eating nutritious meals they are much easier to work with they are calmer more cooperative and have fewer behavior issues.
Many of our kids are on meds and it seems as if their meds are more effective when the kids are eating well.
The trick for us is finding nutritious foods the kids will eat,we keep lots of fruit available and try to limit the junk food intake and never any caffeine !

Yes it is from what I understand. Considering how Obama has been using the bully pulpit for video games and homework, will he use the same for good nutrition?

With the state of health care in this country, and it being a major area for reform, can healthy living and good nutrition be a part of that? Being proactive and preventive will go a long way towards keeping health car costs in line.

So we have 10 delivery trucks making the rounds delivering fresh food to each school every day and that is cheaper than 1 truck from the central Kitchen?
217 hrs & 49 min

that’s the kind of thing (and much worse) we’ve been pushing onto other countries, but now it’s coming home to roost too. but actually, i was thinking more about our policy of agricultural dumping that makes it impossible for local farmers to continue on the land leaving the country dependent on american agribusiness.

Not quite tracking this, fhm. But that could certainly be me. Are you saying one truck making ten trips vs. 10 trucks making one trip each? I’ll be sucking up coffee while you respond and maybe my receptors will be sharper! *g*

This is a first rate post and an issue that has needed so much attention….for a long time.

This is a collateral point to the actual food/hunger problems, but to my sis (a high school principal), it’s a very important one.

School cafeterias provide a communal space for the children, faculty and larger constituency. For example, many schools no longer have an auditorium or decent sized gym. Even when I was in school, our cafeteria provided terrific meeting space — or sometimes a venue for overflow classes.

Sis has all of that but she also has a full cafteria staff..who cook hot meals. The sports teams/clubs have their banquets there. (District policy does not allow potlucks for functions and this allows the teams and students to be feted equally.) They also rent the space to local groups for get togethers. When the PTB of the school system want to break bread together, they call her and arrange a meal in her cafeteria.

I’m ancient but I still remember cafeteria staff, teachers helping children learn about food and how to eat politely among others. Also, the staff who served were simply more adults who “noticed” us and how we were.

We’ve talked about this often in our family. Although my sister’s school is in a poor area devastated by textile layoffs, the school/kids are doing well. She’s convinced it’s because of the community that her facilities/people foster. Her cafeteria/kitchen staff and the meals they prepare are integral to the success of her school and its place in her wider community.

It’s the kitchen table principle that people gravitate to whether it’s for a family meeting/meal or house party gathering.

Oh, I hope so. It could be a great benefit of having a president with younger children.
And,
I dugg. (Had to create a new account using the mr.’s email address, so it won’t show my name, but I guess that doesn’t matter.)

Dugg SD !!

Instead of having a Dept. of Agriculture which is nothing more than a front for agribusiness perhaps what is needed is a Dept. of Food.

If you prepare everything on site you would have a truck from the fruit and vegetable supplier, another truck from the bakery, another truck from a meat supplier, another milk truck, etc etc. With a central Kitchen they get a mass delivery and then there is one truck to each school.
217 hrs & 40 min

Aha! Got it.

Or, perhaps these programs should be better served if they were in Health and Human Services.

YES. That too.

I see a glimmer of hope on the horizon, but it really is just a glimmer unavailable for most folks, I fear. I’m thinking of the return and resurgence of farm markets where people can buy home-grown, fresh produce grown right in their own communities.

That’s a start, but doesn’t reach nearly enough people.

Around our area, some of the big chain stores are beginning to realize shoppers not only will buy, but definitely prefer locally grown food. Some are adding advertising teasers by letting shoppers know when sources are local, or even just following a well-advertised policy of buying locally whenever possible. It works! The stuff flies off the shelves.

But back to the schools and inner-city neighborhoods, the lack of opportunity and the sodden and the stale. It’s a stubborn problem.

Another opportunity I’ve seen in the past, but I don’t know if they still exist: bakery outlets etc. selling “day-old” products – not quite as fresh, but still very usable and nutritious.

Again, that’s only a partial solution, but it’s a start.

There’s a lot of studies out now that show the correlation between food and what it does to does to your brain chemistry. I think sometimes that gets lost when talking about the benefits of nutrition education. A lot the conversation is focused on the physical benefits.

#10 on the Dugg list. Lets bust the meter and go for broke.

Having traveled a fair amount in France and Italy and seeing how they shop and eat and what they expect from purveyors of foodstuffs it’s stunning to see what Americans are willing to tolerate and put into their mouths. Many Americans, if not most, have been brainwashed by Madison Avenue.

Something else that I think we are also going to be hearing from President Obama about is: Safe places for kids to play. I think a lot of kids who live in urban areas end up playing video games inside because they don’t feel safe playing outside. There used to be this huge culture of ’street games’ in urban areas – these have in many places been totally lost because the kids do not have safe places to play. If we want obesity to become less of a problem here, we need to get kids outdoors and playing (and this goes for us adults stuck in front of computers all day long as well).

I’ve seen the benefits first hand
Also, kids that already have trouble with chemical imbalances are more likely to be adversely affected by the foods they eat!

This is especially true with the kids television. Look at the crap that they advertise especially food stuffs.
217 hrs & 29 min

I agree. I hate to pull out the hackneyed, “some of my best friends…” routine, but it’s true. We live in a semi-rural area. It is sad, just plain sickening, to see the galloping slubburbs gobbling up good farmland.

Small farms are popular with the shoppers, especially organically grown produce. I swear they COULD make it work, if only…. government policies and gimmicks overwhelmingly favor the quick, massive corporate-owned over the small-scale high quality operations. The latter could be successful and affordable for both buyer and seller, if only they were given a chance.

How does one convince those who hold the purse-strings, and dab the truffle crumbs off their immaculate chins with fine linens.

class warfare? moi?!

You mean they don’t play stoopball in NYC anymore. *g*
217 hrs & 26 min

Boy, ain’t that the truth. I lived in an apartment for a short time, while we were searching for a house to buy, I could walk to a little Armenian market. I just loved walking there daily and picking out fresh cheese and produce. It was great fun. Sometimes I put on a scarf and pretend to be someone else, somewhere else. I know, I’m strange.

i dare u to find 5 items of fast food that don’t have con-agrr written somewhere in the fine print. we’re sorely vexed if we try to avoid the mc-foods out there on the most accessible shelves.

Here in Gloucester County NJ they have a program where high school kids work at produce stands selling local produce in the summer. It’s a great match and the kids learn about buying local.

OT something is really really weird on the net Google Finance is showing KRY and several other but not all gold stocks up alot.
Now CNN money is showing the same thing in after hours trading

http://money.cnn.com/quote/sho…..l?symb=KRY

This is not a glitch unless CNN shares information with google which is possible its either a hack.
Or the hedgefunds bought stuff with 30 to 1 leverage on insider information. Like China won’t buy any of our debt or Bush will nuke Iran.
I’m going with the Hacker theory.

Northgate Minerals Corporation (USA)NXG
28.67
*+27.74 (2,966.31%)

Pacific Rim Mining Corp. (USA)PMU
29.83
*+29.65 (16,848.86%)

Kimber Resources, Inc.KBX
28.74
*+28.16 (4,855.17%)

Paramount Gold and Silver Corp.PZG
29.88
*+29.48 (7,370.00%)

KRY is up 14,166.67% that kind of rise in price with no news explaining it is not a normal stock move.

Great post Christy. When I worked for an elementary school in Chicago, the principal had received private grant money for a never-empty fruit bowl in the foyer just outside the lunch room. Any student, parent or sibling could have a piece of fruit for free any time the building was open. Results? Fantastic! Not only did more people eat healthy food, but the parents were unintimidated about being in the school, the teachers had more of a chance to chat with parents, and the kids delighted in knowing that their parents came by the school.

How much would a program like this cost?

Agree completely. However, am not sure we’ll lessen the obesity probabilities until high fructose corn syrup is banished from food.

It seems ubiquitous in manufactured food. Would love to see more sunlight shed on the actual cost of obesity, with input from all corners of the medical world.

Would love to have that input juxtaposed with the figures of profit decrease that the food monoliths would scream about if HFCS were banned.

Christy, thank you for putting this up ,as one who works with children I have personal interest in this issue.

Ok poof I have to sleep sometime tracking leads on this story kept me up all night.

look for little ethnic stores tucked here and there in the cities.

both our “kids” live in cities, and their favorite sources for fresh, healthful foods are definitely not mc-types.

the store clerks and owners are delighted to help learn how to use certain of the more intriguing spices and sauces and cooking techniques. the produce is often much more fresh than that that in the megastores, the meat far less expensive, leaner….

i can’t promise same for every store, but it’s worth a look-see.

Betsy – how BIG was that fruit bowl???:)

LOL, I was thinkin’ the same thing.

It was re-filled 4-5 times a day. Sometimes there were two bowls.

Morning Adie. See my #51.

Christy, you are very lucky to have someone who would cook such great food for your local schools…..

During ruff times the schools my kids went to outsourced to a food service company and who knew what was in the food after that. Who knew if there was MSG, food dyes, and high fructose corn syrup.

One change for WIC is the “approved” list of foods that the mothers can purchase. When working with a client in SoCa several times I was stuck behind WIC mothers trying to get everything on the list. Many of the brands that were official I would NOT eat. The process seems to be mutiple trips back from the check stand to get the “correct” food.

Are these WIC approved lists bought and sold by some food producer so they have to pick one manufacturer?

Like, big mixing bowl size – like it would hold an entire 3# bag of oranges or apples? A big bag of oranges locally is in the $5 range; 3# of apples locally is about $2 now. So, if we’re talking my size huge mixing bowl, it might be done for $100 – $150 a week…and worth it.

btw, gang — if it wasn’t clear above, this is something that your Representative and your Senators could use a call about this week and in weeks ahead. The first post on nutrition issues talked about this, but as a review these issues are part of the upcoming renewal of the legislation that covers school lunch programs and such. Has to be renewed this year — they do this every 5 years — and I thought pushing on making it better BEFORE they enact the legislation was a prudent move.

Let’s get it right this time, eh?

I don’t know that they have particular brands for WIC these days — I think they can do just a basic food like “peanut butter,” etc. But it may vary from state to state, too.

In FL food items that are not taxable are allowed. Stuff like soda, candy, etc are taxed so cannot be purchased with the WIC card. They don’t have a list of approved foods here. Mayhaps CA has a different system which is heavily weighted toward the purveyors of junk.

This is a HUGE problem with WIC. Many women don’t use all their coupons because they don’t have access to the approved items and don’t have transportation to the stores where these items are availabls.

In Texas, WIC is specific to certain kinds of milk (organic is apparently too expensive), certain kinds of cheese, certain brands of cereal.

Kind of OT, the local supermarkets here are doing canned food sales, some at outrageously low prices at that. If they are doing this where you live, and you have the means, get some high protein type cans and donate them to the local food shelters.

Thanks for all the diggs, gang — much appreciated.

Katy lives in AZ.
Are you hating on CA?

I work for Coop. Ext. in Arizona, what state is your daughter working in?

The Peanut’s school did a huge canned food drive before Christmas, and really pulled in a lot of donations from the kids for the local homeless shelter/soup kitchen’s pantry. The local pantry has had a huge increase in demand over the past year, so any help folks can give is very, very much appreciated.

I’m sure it’s that way all over the country at this point.

Katy was talking about when she worked in CA and saw problems with WIC. See her comment at 64.

When working with a client in SoCa several times

Nope, just responding to what is written. *g*

New York. We’re in Upstate. Ours is out of Cornell Uni..yours is through…?

For the higher grades…..
1. Throw out fast food restaurants in the schools
2. Restock vending machines without soda and healthy snacks
3. Offer vegan options

I do not care how much money that school is making from the franchise as I think the administration is liable for being a party to obesity and diabetes

For your pre-christmas food drive, I donated bags of brown rice and produce that wouldn’t go bad immediately, like sweet potatoes.

Right you are.
Sorry Dragon.
He knows I love him.

My community radio station puts on a lot of concerts with both local and national names. They collect food at each concert and it goes to Second Harvest in Tampa. They’ve been doing this pretty much since the station went on air in 79.

In school, agricultural education programs can be useful for getting kids to understand where foo come from and school gardens can get kids involved with growing fresh veggies and fruits. Local Cooperative Extension offices or local community garden programs can help with programs.

University of Arizona

I meant Our, not your.
Not multi-tasking very well this am.
Having a side conversation at home while commenting here.

That’s a great idea. It’s a constant flow of supply and and enhances the good time the concert goers experience because they are doing something for the community.

No demi, in AZ never saw this issue for WIC mothers but shopping in Redlands, CA several times and somehow it would be at near the first of the month and how the mothers many new to WIC had such a hassle at the check out stand because they didn’t pick out the right stuff. The mother was trying to deal with their baby, go through the paper list and match it up and the checker rejecting brands that were not on the list and the bagger running back to get the “correct” food.

Made for interesting checkout process and long lines……

BTW, one anecdote about the soda machines in schools. Those are banned at my sister’s school. However, there remained one snack machine outside of the gym at the insistence of the coaches given how many hours some athletes are on campus.

During a recent Friday night basketball game, a tubby 9 year old (at the game with his mom) smashed into the machine for a candy bar (”I just wanted one.”) The mom was unfazed by this….and unapologetic.

Sis used that little event as an excuse to have the machine hauled off….was appalled by junior/momma but secretly thrilled.

There has to be a way to feed the hungry. There’s no excuse when there is such an excess of food in the world.

I’m already sitting in the corner.

You can come sit with me…… just made a fresh pot of french press coffee…. come on over….

Waiting for water to boil as we speak. Gotta do protein drink and vitamins prior to coffee each morning.

NYT’s Sanger Sure Gets It Wrong – US Did Sell Israel Bombs for Iran Attack
upstairs

You’ve probably moved on, but in case you come back here. I’d love to sit and sip with you.
Can we sit out by the pool? Hoping you have as nice weather in AZ as we do in CA this am.

I could use some pool time. It’s 28 degrees here today, and snowing. More pool time please… *G*

Marcy’s upstairs with a terrific piece of political/social/economic analysis and opinion…from SPORTS ILLUSTRATED.

Fascinating how sportswriters are doing some of the better work in journalism these days. Mike Lupica, another sportswriter, has been unstinting in his criticism of all things Dubya … in the “New York Daily News”.

But then again, I never would have imagined the current incarnation of Frank Rich back when he was the NYT theatre critic.