School Lunch Program

[Miulang]

Re: School Lunch Program

we had cafeteria monitor too an if you wanted to go out for recess fast everyone had to eat at least half their lunch or you sat an waited for the straglers to eat harassing them the whole time now that was good peer presure...

I dunno...maybe in my small kid time they made better lunches in the cafeteria or something (ooh! "bubble and squeak! ) I don't remember having seeing many kids not eating almost everything on their trays. We didn't have stuff like pizza back in my days either. Then again, lunch was only a quarter including milk I think (see how makule I am! )

Miulang

[Paul]

Re: School Lunch Program

I dunno...maybe in my small kid time they made better lunches in the cafeteria or something (ooh! "bubble and squeak! ) ). I don't remember having seeing many kids not eating almost everything on their trays. We didn't have stuff like pizza back in my days either. Then again, lunch was only a quarter including milk I think (see how makule I am! )

Miulang

I remember 25 cent lunches back in the 70s. We ate off green plastic trays with real metal forks. The leftover food was dumped into a slop can which was picked up by a local pig farm. I do recall having pizza on certain Fridays.

[alohabear]

Re: School Lunch Program

I remember 25 cent lunches back in the 70s. We ate off green plastic trays with real metal forks. The leftover food was dumped into a slop can which was picked up by a local pig farm. I do recall having pizza on certain Fridays.

And hamburger in one form or the other every other day!

[Da Rolling Eye]

Re: School Lunch Program

My daughter was guilty of dumping her lunch on occasion. Usually on the days they serve "chicken patty". More of a mystery meat and she hates it. Now we pack home lunch on days they serve what she doesn't like which is actually only a couple of items. The mystery meat and for some reason the sloppy joe.

Too bad there isn't some way they can "recycle" some of that food. My wife ends up bringing home some of that leftover milk that's expiring. They don't last too long as most are usually from the lunch line and has been left out for awhile. We just gotta open them and check. Mel caught a bad one a couple of times. She now knows what sour milk is.

Used to love working the cafeteria on days they served that hamburger "goulash". Was so ono. After pau clean, the ladies would tell us to get a bowl and they'd serve up the leftover rice and hamburger. We could get 2nds and 3rds. Mmmmm.

[alohabear]

Re: School Lunch Program

The offcial reviews start 3/14. All I can say is this will be a MAJOR news story if 5 schools fail.

[pzarquon]

Re: School Lunch Program

As the audit gets underway to test how accurately we track how many lunches are served, the BOE is looking into the issue I posted about earlier where kids are penalized when their parents can't or won't pay for their food.

BOE seeks policy for parents who skip on lunch tab

"I know schools are not collection agencies but feeding our children is key," said Mary Cochran, chairwoman of the board's Support Services committee. The issue was sparked by reports that some schools provide merely a roll or crackers along with a drink to students who repeatedly borrow from the school for their lunches... Noting that practices vary from school to school, board members asked the department to report back next month with plans for a consistent statewide approach that puts more pressure on "deadbeat" parents.

[kaneohegirl]

Re: School Lunch Program

you know i dont really know whats hard about this.... if the parent cannot take the 15 mins to fill out the form for free or reduced rate lunch program or make enough but are too dang lazy to make sure the kid has lunch money .... the kid should eat... but keep the tab going send home a bill with the statement

Dear parent of johny so&so,
this is to inform you that you owe the school Xamount of money for lunch being provided.... failure to pay will result in Johny not being allowed to return to school... please pay by blah blah blah thank you ect

whats so hard about that. kids dont eat their brain gets dumb and the learning stops.... but when the free daycare/schooling stops then hey they might think about it a bit more

[Da Rolling Eye]

Re: School Lunch Program

kgirl, they do bill the parents. After that it can get really complicated because no one wants to put the child in the middle of the whole mess. The child is the one that ultimately suffers for no fault of his/her own. If the parents choose to ignore the schools efforts in seeking compensation, there isn't much the school can do except what was mentioned above. Feed the child the minimum. Milk and crackers.

Another problem is, although the parents may show they have the adequate income to afford the school lunch, in some cases one or both of the parents have a drug problem and smokes it all away. My wife has seen this time and time again. You're probably thinking, well why doesn't she do something about it. There are procedures to follow. She can only file a complaint with the school, then she's out of the picture. A lot of cases end up fizzling out.

[kaneohegirl]

Re: School Lunch Program

Another problem is, although the parents may show they have the adequate income to afford the school lunch, in some cases one or both of the parents have a drug problem and smokes it all away.

eh I was one of those keeds my mom always took da child support payment (was oni $100.00 a month an smoke um away).... I know ... hard for da keeds but if da lunch lady told me "eh get money cause no can do lidis anymore" I told my mom "eh you no give me money dey going make me stay home den you going go jail for not having me in school".... by da end of da week she had money for me.... mabbe I was jus more vocal den some of des keeds. I finally got tired of it an told my dad no send checks no more send gift certs and gift cards that made it harder for her to waste um on drugs

[Da Rolling Eye]

Re: School Lunch Program

I'm so sorry to hear that, Kgirl. In light of that fact, I'm sure glad you're still with us. My wife wanted to quit her job because of all the crap she was seeing and was feeling so helpless over. If we could have done what we wanted to, we'd have at least 6 more kids. All from the hardest cases and all really good, affectionate kids. Funny how these kids will call my wife and give her a hug. When it came to their parents, they silently went to them, stood at their side and silently walked away. Heartbreaking.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: School Lunch Program

Ever since moving to the Big Island, I've had the opportunity to see rural poverty in action. Not the kind of ruralness you see on Oahu but a more isolated kind where parents have no concept of consequences regarding how they raise their kids.

Here if a child were to bring a survey or a lunch form for their parents to fill out, chances are that parent either cannot read, or they can read but cannot comprehend the reading level for what the form is asking or mandating.

I've heard of parents tell their kids, "Oh yeah it's okay with me let me sign it and give it back to your teacher." Never mind that they just agreed to pay for a lunch program that they cannot afford, or that they need to turn in certain documents to support financial aid and they don't.

I've heard parents grumble saying, "How come dey give me all dis kine paperwork? I no can understand what dey like, ahhh I no like boddah wit dis kine stuff". Then they throw it away not even understanding what they just did.

Now the kid has no lunch, can't go on field trips, can't watch a certain movie, or whatever the school is asking permission from the parent for that student to watch, participate or receive.

Out here there is a very simplistic mentality not seen too often in Honolulu. Some areas here residents have no TV, no electricity (living off the grid), no paper delivery. They are pretty well shut out of whatever is going on outside of their communities. Even the radio stations here on the Big Island are limited with just a small handful of AM radio stations to get the word out and FM stations that are bent on just playing the music.

Out here you can travel 10-miles thru dense rainforests on basically pig trails and to your surprise come across a homestead with a family living in it. The child has to hike to the nearest road where the school bus has to slosh thru mud to get to that child on roads that by Honolulu standards would be considered a washed out stream bed.

Life out in the rural areas of the Big Island can be brutal when it comes to education, and some of these families literally live off the land and simply cannot comprehend the formalities of filling out paperwork or even understanding what a school lunch program is at all! They just figure that it's a public school and they don't have to pay for it.

I've actually gone to some of these homes and you get the impression that you just stepped off of a plane and entered into a third world country. Water is carried to the house with buckets because there is no plumbing. At night they sit around the only light in the house and talk story because there is no tv reception that far in the rainforests in a room that leaks from the driving rainstorm, sheets of rain pelting on rusted out corrugated steel roofing making this intense roaring sound. Makes for a cozy evening. And there are pockets of communities that have families living like this. So far off the beaten track you'd think you were on a deserted island and suddenly...a house!

When you understand that these are the kinds of families that are asked to either pay for or are asked to request for financial aid for school lunches only then can you understand the kind of responses they will return...none! Because they can't understand the concept of what is being asked of them because they are so isolated from the rest of the world.

I've lived most of my life on Oahu from as far out as Makaha to Kahala, even venturing into deep into Kahana Valley to inspect a home on one of the Gas Company's delivery routes. But all that never prepared me for what I see on the Big Island. Wow is all I can say and I wonder how in the world are the children of these families going to survive in a competitive world while living this kind of lifestyle. Simple...they starve and they fall thru the educational cracks. Life is tough living out in the sticks but for these people, it's a way of life so when the outside world asks them to fill out and return the completed paperwork...it's not in their realm to comprehend the importance of that document and they shrug it off.

[Paul]

Re: School Lunch Program

According to this article the DOE failed the audit. So what happens now?

[pzarquon]

Re: School Lunch Program

That was last year's audit, which led to fines. The current one is still ongoing.

Taxpayers footing the bill might never know about the penalty, unless schools fail the compliance review March 13 through April 21.

[alohabear]

Re: School Lunch Program

That was last year's audit, which led to fines. The current one is still ongoing.

What happens is this....The parents and kids won't feel a thing(paid, free,reduce will still remain).The DOE will have to pay the DIFFERENCE of what a lunch cost(currently $3) . Example a full paid lunch is a dollar now the state will then have to pay $2 to make up cost. Also the school will not be allowed to pass the cost on to the parents to make up this cost.

[alohabear]

Re: School Lunch Program

4/7 UPDATE! So far one school on windward Oahu has failed the audit. This school is losing 100% of thier federal funding for school lunch. This unnamed school must pay for thier lunches from thier budgets.

They better start holding MAJOR fundraisers!