Posted on 03/17/2005 12:25:18 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
School Breakfast Program in WI "Embarassing" 03-16-2005
For the 7th consecutive year, Wisconsin schools are dead last when it comes to the most important meal of the day. Wisconsin is 50th in the nation when it comes to the number of schools that offer breakfast programs, and the number of low-income students
It's a morning routine now for Anna Toppel and her brother Hunter. They've been eating breakfast at their school in DeForest for the past year.
"The fact that they can go to school earlier, was the number one reason why we went with it," Anna's mother, Jodi Toppel said. "Now that they have the breakfast there, it's a lot less hassles in the morning."
Convenience was the selling point for the Toppel family. For $1 each, their kids get a breakfast at school every morning. Low income families can pick up a reduced price breakfast for just 30 cents. For every breakfast served, the state then reimburses the school a dime.
Jon Janowski, director of the Hunger Task Force says schools need to do more, and the state needs to do more to give schools an incentive. The Hunger Task Force is a non-profit group out of Milwaukee that is a leader in promoting change to the state's school breakfast program. "The bottom line is -- hungry children don't learn, and there are children who go to school hungry all over the state on any given day."
Statistically, it doesn't look good for Wisconsin. According to numbers from the food research and action center, only 47% of Wisconsin schools offer school breakfast to their students -- dead last in the nation. The national average is 79%.
Janowski wants more schools to take advantage of the several federal grants available for the creation a school breakfast program. "We would argue -- this program offers so many benefits to kids, there really isn't any reason not to offer the program," Janowski said.
But even Janowski admits starting a school breakfast program is not an easy task. After the startup grant is gone -- typically after two years -- the schools then have to foot the bill themselves. Staffing alone for the breakfast program at DeForest's Middle School costs about $8,000 a year. Other schools 27 News contacted point out other hidden obstacles -- like earlier bus schedules, time for eating, and then there's the money needed for more staffing.
Governor Doyle proposed increasing the state breakfast reimbursement from 10 cents to 15 cents to help offset some of those costs. His plan would cost the state $1.3 million in the next two-year budget.
"When the need is there, I think it's pretty immoral of us not to be there doing what we can," State Representative Sondy Pope-Roberts said. "It's a pretty simple thing once it gets going."
Pope-Roberts says she supports the governor's plan to increase funding and reimbursement to schools. The problem, she says, is getting other legislators to understand the generational changes in play. "If you look at today's population in schools and it's completely different. I think the assumption is: because I send my child to school with a healthy breakfast, everyone else must. They aren't remembering those single families, maybe holding down a couple of jobs, maybe not enough money to provide a nutritious breakfast. Kids cannot go to school hungry and be expected to learn and be well behaved. It just doesn't happen."
The Hunger Task Force has teamed up with the Wisconsin Council of Churches, to lobby legislators to support an increase in funding to the state's school breakfast program. The two groups will be at the capitol tomorrow to testify before the the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee in support of the reimbursement hike.
Eleven out of the 16 school districts in Dane County offer school breakfast in at least one of their schools. Monona Grove, Wisconsin Heights, Sun Prairie, and Verona are the only districts in the county with all of their schools serving breakfast.
At one of my old jobs there was a manager who made a very, very nice living. She quite proudly told us that every year she applies for section 8 housing (I don't know if that's national or a local program, people get apartments with very reduced rent, most of the time under $100) and welfare. We were shocked and asked her why. She said, "Why not?? If the government is giving it out I might as well get my share."
Thank you thank you thank you!!
From a life long Badger who is looking for somewhere ELSE to retire.
Breakfast is like fixin' to take a nap while leaving for work.
"But, they always made it a point to have their daughter in POLO clothes and brand name sneakers."
That stuff doesn't bother me. As a Mom who could've easily afforded those types of clothes for her kids, I bought them...used, at Goodwill, LOL! Maybe your SIL is doing the same? It's amazing to me what the Rich Folk donate, but it makes the rest of us look good, too.
That whole "designer duds" fight started for me when the kids were 12 years old or so. If they wanted "designer" they bought it with their alloted breakfast meal money and went hungry. (Just kiddin'!)
I'm really surprised there hasn't been ONE voice of dissent here on this issue. I thought for sure some bleeding heart would show up and accuse us of starving little non-aborted children and being Evil Conservatives. Maybe it's still too early? ;)
I worked for a grocer many years ago....and very few people used the program as it should be used. My very first day a woman came through my line with $100 worth of crab. At that time I had never even tried crab. After a few years of witnessing these types of abuse you get very jaded about Food Stamp programs.
Some of the people suggesting these programs really do care about the kids who are not fed before school. I am grateful there are people like them in the world to look out for those who really need help.
That said, I do think the number of people who will enrols their children in these programs will be much larger than it needs to be. The kids get to be at school 30 minutes earlier each morning, so the parents don't have to make breakfast and can go about their other business sooner. Almost free food, free childcare - they will be signing up like crazy.
I'm sure the "food" served also rates a "Barf Alert".
I must have missed it - why is this bad?
Wisconsin is 50th in the nation when it comes to the number of schools that offer breakfast programs, and the number of low-income students
And don't they think there might be a correlation between these two items?
Yup, just what our kids need - more time in the government-run Education Centers and less time with the family. A perfect strategy for the RATS.
How could they be? They get free cereal, milk and orange juice through WIC and they get hundreds of dollars in food stamps for anything else they might want to eat. I have worked with children's programs where some of the kids participating were from low-income homes, and the common denominator was laziness. The children frequently didn't even make it to school, because none of the "adults" (all female) in the house could drag themselves out of bed early enough to get the kids up and ready for school.
Wait, are they complaining that Wisconsin doesn't have enough poor students?
LMAO!
When is the government going to decide to give every kid a split level? It's not fair that some kids have their own bedroom to study in and other kids don't. What? Doesn't the government like kids?
I'll never forget two similar instances I witnessed, years apart and in two different states. The first, a man in his 40s or 50s buying nothing but potato chips and jars of pimientos at a grocery store in St. Louis, and paying with food stamps. The second, a man in his early 20s at a 7Eleven in WV, buying candy, and paying with food stamps. What a world.
When I was a kid, my Dad got paid monthly. Once a month. A broken car or refrigerator or some other unexpected expense (doctor, dentist, etc.) and we ate lots of hot dogs and baked beans at the end of the month. My mother actually served Spam from time to time. It was rare that my mother would give me a quarter to buy lunch. She packed lunches for me and all my brothers every day. Sandwich, apple, cookie....
With the wonders of socialism, as handed to us by the scumbag Democrats and their allies in the scumbag liberal newsrooms, the parasite class (the Democrat "base") now believes it is "entitled" to reach into my wallet to feed their kids. I don't think things have changed for the better.
My 3 year old "makes" cereal for himself & his sister. If these people can't handle feed their kids breakfast, I'm shocked they were able to figure out how to reproduce.
"I must have missed it - why is this bad?"
Because they get extra money from the state/feds for having poor kids in the school, the more the "better".
I wonder what they want to serve for breakfast. At my high school they served breakfast, but instead of buying an entire breakfast, you could buy the individual items. On the days I got breakfast, I would get either a cinnamon roll or a Twix bar. Yummy, but probably not what nutritionists would recommend for breakfast. Also, a lot of kids at that school probably don't need breakfast because they have lunch so early. (First lunch was at 10:30 the last I heard.)
I agree with you. Those children that truly are coming to school hungry should have a chance to eat. Most children should and are fed at home. I'm a conservative and against a lot of forms of welfare. I just don't think it's fair to punish the children for the sins of the parents. We should be pushing for tighter regulations of social aid programs so that these programs aren't necessary. Unfortunately, however, as long as the parents are able to spend the aid money on alcohol and junk, the ones being punished by not serving breakfast are the children.
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