“Some schools opened to serve breakfast and lunch”
I worked in a small school district (8 elementaries - 2 high schools) in So. Cal for a few years for the the elementary school lunch program. At one time they were going to start this breakfast program. Supervisor asked for suggestions from us “lunch servers” (aka, dreaded lunch ladies). I tried to get behind the program but it was difficult as every suggestion I had was turned down.
I pictured 20 or so kids sitting at a table sharing a big box of wheaties, or corn pops or whatever, cups of OJ poured from large container, milk for the cereal out of a pitcher and a piece of sliced fruit. We had a full service kitchen — so we could intersperse hot oatmeal and raisins or Cream of Wheat in between the cold cereals.
No, No, No each kid had to have individual boxes of OJ, Milk, and those little cereals, doubling the cost of course for taxpayers. The little boxes were so they could have a “choice”. My response was “This is free — what’s the big choice thing going on here.”
My final suggestion of saying Grace, or a moment of thanks for this meal was just laughed at out loud, as I knew it would be.
So, in summary, what I envisioed as what could have been a fun start of the day for the little kids, with good humor and a flower or two on the table occasionally, turned into a costly assembly line of 20 griping kids with half-eaten breakfast — just like at the lunch time where trash cans are full of food.
My rant for the day. Thanks for listening (reading).
Thank you for the report.
Here’s how a HUGE employer and contributor to meals at school is being blamed for the need.
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=10471
“Why Walmart loves free school breakfast”
by Dana Woldow‚ Sep. 10‚ 2012
...............”So the obvious answer to the question of why Wamart supports expanded school breakfast is that Walmart wants to help feed poor kids in the communities where its stores are located. But is there more to it than that?
To answer that question, one first must examine the impact Walmart has on the communities where it locates. Numerous studies have linked Walmart’s arrival in a community with a reduction in jobs and lowering of wages within that community. Michele Simon is a public health lawyer and president of Eat Drink Politics, a consultant firm on food industry tactics.
She reviews many of these studies in an article entitled “Is Walmart’s March into Cities Helping or Hurting?”, and writes
In a report from last summer called “The Walmartization of New York City,” researchers at the City University of New York concluded that, “despite Walmart’s promises of jobs and lower prices for the community, the longer term impact is actually the opposite.”
Assuming Walmart opened the 159 stores needed to reach 21 percent grocery market share in New York City (the same proportion the company enjoys nationally), the impact would be a net loss of almost 4,000 jobs, and a loss of more than $453 million in wages per year for all remaining workers.
What about the new Walmart jobs? According to the report, 4,279 new low-wage Walmart workers would have to “rely on social services to make ends meet, costing New York taxpayers over $4 million per year” in health care benefits alone. This, in a city where the mayor has asked for $2 billion in budget cuts.
The effects are even greater when examined nationwide. In 2006, the St Louis Business Journal reported
A study focused on the effects of Wal-Mart stores on poverty rates found that an estimated 20,000 families nationwide have fallen below the official poverty line as a result of the chain’s expansion.”.......