| Schools remind parents of reduced-cost meals
Collier County's public school district is reminding parents and guardians that reduced-price breakfasts and lunches are available at each public school. The price of lunch in the elementary schools is $1.85 and in the secondary schools is $2.10. Breakfast for students at all grade levels is $1. Low-income families and those faced with difficult financial situations may be eligible to receive school meals either free or at a reduced price and their child's meal status will be confidential. To find out if a child qualifies, visit www.collier.k12.fl.us/foodservice/frlunch/ and click on the "Income Chart" link on the left side. If you qualify, print the online meal application, full in the requested information and mail the completed application to: The Department of Nutrition Services, 5775 Osceola Trail, Naples, FL 34109.
Recalled beef puts Snohomish County schools to work
At lunchtime on Friday, Barbara Lloyd helped toss half a ton of hamburger patties, beef Rib-B-Que, beef crumbles, meatballs and country beef steak strips into the garbage piles at the Mountlake Terrace transfer station.
The meat, intended for school lunches in Edmonds, was taken from freezers as part of the nation's largest meat recall ever. Schools in Washington have until Monday to destroy the recalled beef, which came from a California slaughterhouse.
"I personally was throwing the cases," said Lloyd, food service director for the Edmonds School District. "It's a sickening feeling to watch all of this good nutrition go down the drain because something in the pipeline went wrong, but it had to be done."
Hundreds of thousands of pounds of beef are being dumped in landfills, covered with bleach or, in some cases, sent to plants that may process them into dog food or glue.
California beef problems affect North Dakota lunchrooms
North Dakota schools are waiting for word on whether they can use hundreds of cases of ground beef from a California slaughterhouse under federal investigation.If the meat cannot be used, it might mean added expense for some school districts.Districts in North Dakota and several other states stopped using meat from Hallmark Meat Packing Co. and its associated Westland Meat Co. late last month under direction from the Agriculture Department, after a video showed workers brutalizing sick and crippled cows.The Hallmark plant is being investigated for possible violation of laws designed to ensure food safety and prevent animal cruelty.Westland sold more than 27 million pounds of beef last year for use in school lunch and other federal nutrition programs. USDA has extended a ban on use of meat from the Chino, Calif., slaughterhouse until Tuesday.
AINA makes a school subject out of gardening
He could not make a connection between the carrot in his hand and the orange cubes in a frozen mix of peas and carrots. "That's kind of scary, that kids these days have never tasted or seen" a fresh carrot and think food comes from the supermarket, says Betty Gearen, co-director of a new program called AINA in the Schools. The Kokua Hawaii Foundation originated the AINA program, whose name means "land" in Hawaiian, and also is the acronym for its mission: Actively Integrate Nutrition and Agriculture in Schools. The program is now in effect at Waialae Charter and Sunset and Aikahi Elementary schools for the second year. The AINA program has turned the garden into a classroom for 200 or so kids at Waialae. "They just love us -- they give us hugs" when they see Gearen and her helpers coming for bimonthly lessons, she said.
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