Posted on 09/25/2014 7:52:51 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
MARIETTA — Federal food regulations going into effect this school year are affecting certain teachers’ lesson plans as well as the lunchroom menu.
Limits on the calorie counts of foods that may be sold to students have interfered with the special education and culinary arts programs at Marietta High School, said Principal Leigh Colburn.
The special education students sold coffee and food such as muffins to teachers and students every morning last year, but Colburn said the calorie counts of those items fall outside the new regulations because they’re more than 200 calories, which is the limit for a snack sold outside of lunch. In addition, the 2010 federal regulation Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act limits the amount of sodium, sugar and calories in each food served at lunchtime.
The cart was operated and stocked by the 16 students in the special education program, but since August, the coffee cart has been locked in a closet because the students can’t sell to other students, Colburn said.
“That was the way (special education) kids interacted with (other) kids. It’s a big part of who (the special education students) were. They were learning to take orders, to make change, to make coffee, but mostly they were communicating with kids and the kids were communicating back,” Colburn said.
Anna Thielemann said her daughter, Louisa, who is 17 and in the 10th grade, has developmental delays and autism, and the coffee cart was the brightest part of her daughter’s school day.
“One thing I know she really enjoys about it is getting her out and about within the school, just getting them integrated with the rest of the school and just interacting with other typical kids,” Thielemann said.
Dale Gibson, a special education teacher at Marietta High School, said the coffee cart program created an environment of inclusiveness in the school.
“The (special education) kids would greet customers, take orders and prepare the items,” Gibson said. “The general education kids would call them by name, and they looked forward to seeing our kids come and if they didn’t see them for a day, they would ask about them.”
Christy Hunt, a special education teacher, said the coffee cart was also essential to teaching special education students the skills they need for a job.
“Our students need those opportunities to interact with others because they are very shy and they don’t have a lot of opportunities to speak,” Hunt said. “It was really about our teacher curriculum and teaching our kids real-life skills in a real-life setting. It’s part of what we need to teach them, and that part of it in the school system has been taken away by the Healthy Kids Act.”
Hunt said running the coffee cart helps the students learn communication, speech and money management skills in a real-life setting.
Thielemann said the coffee cart was a much bigger part of her daughter’s life than most people would imagine.
“Even though it might seem like a little thing to people, it’s just huge and they’re able to incorporate so much within that process … just a lot of different types of life and job skills. It’s just really a shame to see this program fall or not be able to be done because she was so proud of it, too.”
Colburn said eliminating the coffee cart is damaging their education.
“It’s their curriculum, and it’s gone,” Colburn said.
Culinary students restricted
The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act resulted in two changes this year about which foods can be served to students. Whole-wheat flour is the main ingredient in all wheat products, instead of white flour. Food is also being produced differently so sodium levels are lower.
The schools are focusing on keeping the total calorie count for each lunch between 750 and 850 calories for ninth through 12th grade.
The same complex regulations are placed on the foods students can cook in the high school’s culinary arts program. Juniors at Marietta High in the culinary class run Devil Rock, the school’s restaurant, which is open two days every other week for lunch. Ginger Pratt, who runs the program, said last year the restaurant offered lunch to teachers and seniors.
But this year, Pratt decided to sell lunch to teachers — not seniors — so the program doesn’t violate the regulations, which only apply to students.
Colburn said she thinks the restaurant, which teaches students to cook, take orders and serve food, will lose profits this year.
“There’s no restaurant in the world that can stay in business if they cook according to those standards,” Colburn said.
The meals the restaurant served last year don’t meet the regulations, said Marietta High School senior Mary Jeanne Assinzo.
“For $5, you used to get a good portion of food and a drink, and you enjoy it because it tastes good,” Assinzo said. “Some of the things they did were pasta, and chicken dishes with pasta.”
Pratt said a typical meal the students cook includes barbecue chicken, corn bread, collard greens and macaroni and cheese with homemade banana pudding for dessert.
Cooking the meal involved teaching the students to debone a chicken thigh, make a sauce for the macaroni and cheese and prepare pastry cream for the pudding, Pratt said.
Pratt said the restaurant typically sold lunch to about 40 teachers and 20 students each day it was open.
“That’s a good chunk of business gone because we serve about the same amount of students as teachers,” Pratt said. “We run the restaurant not to make money, because it’s for the learning experience, but I can’t afford to lose money.”
Pratt said the profits of the program are used to buy food and supplies for the next week’s meals. For instance, Devil Rock made about $350 in profit each day, but only $75 was left after food for the next week was purchased, Pratt said.
Colburn said the program, in which about 150 students are enrolled, emulates a real-life restaurant experience.
“My culinary kids run a restaurant. Their program has to be financially self-sufficient. So, just like a restaurant, what they can buy to cook for the next week comes from the proceeds of what they sell,” Colburn said.
Pratt said the decrease in profit will take away money she could spend to teach her students.
“One of the standards I have to teach them is to break down chicken,” Pratt said.
Each of her 40 students needs a chicken to practice this skill, and they cost $5 each, she said.
“That’s $200 for one class, and that’s only one time. No one really learns anything after doing it one time,” Pratt said.
Pratt said she has money saved up from last year’s profits she plans to use to keep her program running, but that stash won’t last for long. In the meantime, Pratt said she hopes the regulation will change in the future to allow her to offer her students more opportunities to cook.
“I don’t quite understand the purpose of the regulation. I do believe in eating healthier, and I do teach nutrition in all three years of my classes. We serve things in moderation,” Pratt said. “I want to be able to serve the students … I think (the federal regulation) has gone about it the wrong way.”
Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Upsetting the coffee cart Federal regulations limit curriculum along with choices
Federal Nanny State in the Peach State PING!
Leftists assume meek compliance with all their control freakery.
Ignore them. Live and enjoy life.
With all that’s going on the the world I shouldn’t let this affect me——but it does.
Another erosion of our freedoms.
God,I detest the Obama’s.
.
Oops,unnecessary apostrophe. (Obama’s)
.
That's it! Back to school with you. Hope you like gruel. :)
When Michelle eats it every day, then our kids will eat it every day.
Uncle Sugar’s money comes with strings attached.
Foolish teachers, foolish students. Its about obedience, nothing else.
You wanna be liberal and not study history?
Fine. Then put down that muffin or be tazed, jailed and raped. And ask your dead dog if I’m kidding.
Thanks for the ping!
“Were we to be told by Washington what snack to buy and what not to buy, we should soon want for muffins.”
Cupcakes, too.
My apologies to Jefferson.
Liberals have to control people. It's who they are. The Special-Ed students are just collateral damage.
"Ceterum censeo 0bama esse delendam."
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
“Were we to be told by Washington what snack to buy and what not to buy, we should soon want for muffins.”
Cupcakes, too.
My apologies to Jefferson.
I can’t believe the feds are going to come in and audit these schools for their calorie counts. This is such BS.
Government school is child abuse.
With all due respect to mom & pop, as a consequence of the parents of administration, faculty and staff members of Marietta High School not teaching their children about the federal government’s constitutionally limited powers, the school’s best response to the federal government’s food calorie limits is the following. School officials are reluctantly trying to comply with these constitutionally indefensible federal intrastate regulations instead of cautioning the feds not to let the door hit them on their way out.
Stupid law. However, most any recipe can be altered to lower the calorie count, either by using substitute ingredients, or by making the snack just a bit smaller.
Instead of a 4 oz piece of chicken use a 3 oz piece. Use 2% cheese instead of regular cheese. Etc. Etc.
Half Donut: 25¢
That's a really ironic name for that act.
The Federal government has a long history of "providing" funding for state responsibilities, and then threatening to take away that funding if the state does not comply with some federal regulation. If only the states would have stood up when this practice first started--anything the federal government "provides" comes from the same taxpayers who pay the state and local taxes. There is no such thing as "government money."
And lose federal (tax payer) funds? Most would rather die.
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