News-Record.com

If it means students and facility will receive a higher quality of food and service, I am all for it. My fifth grader that attends Florence asked me today ?mom do you know the meat at school bounces? I?ve been experimenting?

Bruce,

As I tell my students I teach, raise your right hand and say, "Mrs. McAbee,.......Do we........" and I reply, "Thank you class. That was an excellent question.....So glad you all asked that."

Well, Bruce. So glad you asked for comments. I have been reading the newspapers and remembering past articles and definitely would like to address this especially after speaking to the School Board several weeks ago regarding lack of nutrition in our schools and high carb meals, and the rise of obesity and type II diabetes in our children.

Bare with me - this may get long.

First of all in your article dated May 30, 2004, "Offer better food, state urges schools", you state, "Though schools generally offer healthier options, many school cafeterias, including those in Guilford /County, give high school students the chance to buy high-fat,high-calories foods every day." Also quoted is, "Thaxton said school officials place too much pressure on cafeterias to be profit centers. Cafeterias must sell a la carte items to balance the books." He further states, "The primary mission of school cafeterias should be to provide healthy meals for students."

Based on today's article in the N & R apparently the profit Sedexho had planned on was not there; GCS was not willing to lower the guaranteed payments due from Sedexho. With all the attention recently that has turned to Sedexho (including background checks on their janitors and the recent newspaper articles on what kind of job Sedexho is doing in cleaning our schools) a very smart move on the part of GCS. Also as stated in today's article, Sedexho was originally hired to "save money".

Once again, they mention "french fries" or "pizza" as an a la carte item might go up? What is it with the School Board and french fries?

I stand by my statement in my School Board speech, "AT WHAT COST ARE WE CHEATING OUR KIDS OUT OF PROPER NUTRITION FOR THE SAKE OF THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR?"

If you have ever experienced cafeteria food in GCS; it is usually a very high carb menu and high in salt. The meat as Rhonda stated above not only bounces, it has a rubbery taste to it. As far as the "juice" having vitamin C, I could not find it listed on the contents.

Now is the ideal time to make amends in the nutritional needs of our children. Even if the cost of lunches has to increase slightly, I feel parents would much rather have their kids have a balanced meal that tastes good. I believe a registered dietician should be consulted in ordering properly balanced entrees. Now there is time to plan for this.

Why do kids, especially in elementary school, need a selection of cookies, ice cream, chips, high sugar fruit frozen fruit concoctions to choose from? Do you think they will go for the broccoli? I think not. (There was also an excellent letter regarding nutrition in our schools in last week's Rhino.)

Now fast forward.....

Today I received my copy of "Children Do Come with Directions". This is the book where 135,000 guides will be distributed in GCS, providing parents with information on child health, development and safely. (Directions for raising kids provided by our school system.) This was provided by a parnership project between GCS, the United Way and the Wallace Foundation. First of all how much did this booklet cost?? What else could this money have been spent on? Maybe some more teacher assistants in overcroweded classrooms? How many parents who NEED this will actually read it? Do you think the parents who do not return phone calls, go to parent conferences, do not go to community forums, or spend much time volunteering for their kids will actually take time to read this?

But for those who parents who will, look at this GREAT INFORMATION I did find on page 9 under "Nutrition". It states:
Buy a variety of healthy foods including fruits, vegetables and WHOLE-GRAIN breads and cereals
(our cafeterias serve white rolls)
Limit sugary, high-fat snacks
(there goes those "al la carte" items for profit and the frozen high sugar treat)
Avoid adding excessive salt to foods
(forget that chicken pie that is tasty but so, so salty)
Encourage your child to drink plenty of water or low fat milk, not empty-calorie fruit drinks and sodas
(juice with no Vitamin C?)

Now that we know that Guilford County Schools cares so much about what parents of children ages 5 - 12 are feeding their kids, surely they will listen to their OWN book and feed our kids proper, healthy, nutritional food.

I rest my case.

The middle school food is better received by my son than the elementary food. I know that he eats pizza, cheesburger, chicken sandwich, chicken nugetts. Broccoli would never pass his lips, either there or at home. I have mixed feelings about limiting the choice of hot foods. I do think that the chips/fake juice could be eliminated. As a parent I try to feed him nutritous food at home (and its hard). Balanced meals are a constant battle, but I don't want him to not eat anything, and that can be the downside. Losing Sodexho is no big thing as far as I can tell. The short transition time could be challenging.

I have heard many complaints about the janitorial end of things, so I am hoping that they will not be renewed in that position. In theory, letting a company that is an 'expert' in those fields do the job is a good one, but the monitering of their performance is another matter. GCS should be in the job of educating our children and I am all for outsourcing somethings, if they are done effectively, both with time and money and quality of product (food/cleanliness). Now if the principal has a problem with the cleaning staff, he has to go through more steps than if they were enployed by GCS. Wouldn't it be great if the chain of command was simplfied?

Debora,

Glad you mentioned the "cleaning end". What has concerned me greatly and I have written the GCS Board is that in recent weeks, I have notice that there are still no photo i.d.'s being warn by janitors. In come cases, there are no i.d.'s at all being warn. This has been in 4 schools that I have noticed.

I am currently corresponding the board since my speech to the GCS Board regarding photo i.d.'s to address this situation in a written, all county policy to all schools.

Worse yet, and really scary, now I have seen "janitors" but on "substitute" badges.
These could be Sedexho temps???

We still don't have the timeframe on conducting background checks for Sedexho employees and their temps.

A young child who sees a "substitute" badge, assumes that this is a "teacher" and this person is "safe". All substitutes have background checks done on them by GCS. If they move here from out-of-state they pay for their own additional background check. At least this is how it was in 2000 when I starting substitute teaching. This is why even a student teacher who may be teaching most of the class, must have a sub in the room to "babysit" her. The student teachers are not GCS employees that have had a background check run on them.

I would appreciate anyone who is reading this to write the school board and encourage them to make EVERY employee of Guilford County School wear a photo I.D. AT ALL TIMES. These are public schools just like airports and other places only with young children wondering around at all times. That one e-mail or letter could possibly save one child from harm's way.

Also the bus hub assistants need badges and an identifying shirt/smock so young children will know these are "safe" people to help them on the buses or take them to the bathroom.

Please help in this endeavor.

I have the janitor thing on my mind lately and forgot about expanding on the "food" subject.

I have no problem with pizza; cheeseburgers; tacos; chicken bq sandwiches - some of the better entrees.

The problem arises when you serve tacos and the sides area: corn, cornbread, pintos and rice - carb, carb, carb and carb. The children (and the teachers if they eat this) get very sleepy after lunch. It is hard to keep their attention. If, for instance, you serve a bq chicken sandwich, it could be on a whole grain bun and at least have 2 side choices that are not another carb.

With the rubbery meats, how much is "filler" and what is it filled with - more carb?

And here goes my favorite word "French fries"; they are cold and soggy anyway so do we really need them often? Then we have to constantly open packs of ketchup that kids can't open and thus spread germs on our hands.

I totally agree that we must have entrees that the kids will eat, but surely they can find a way to balance the meals.

Do you know that butter or margarine is not offered with a roll because I was told they have to "balance" the menu and that would increase the "fat" content of the meal. What about the ice cream, cookies, chips, etc. that are available? Surely more fat in those than one teaspoon of margarine.

Also we have children and adults who are diabetics and there should ALWAYS be an alternate choice of beverage too to help in that regard.

Just some "food for thought".

I guess that'll teach Bruce not to ask again.

You said it David. Actually, Bruce loves my writings so does D. Clark, N & R - just e-mailed me today about my posts on The Chalkboard.

If Bruce asks, he knows he will definitely get an answer.

Here's a little food for thought: http://www.choiceusa.net/news_archiveSuccess.htm.

Plus it's not just the food. Can anyone give me a guestimate how much activity kids have during the day in school?

Is 30 minutes of "gym" twice a week enough?

Herb,

Super resource site. Lots of great stuff. Hope the School Board is listening and will take note of some of these great ideas that have had "Success."

As far as physical activity, I have only subbed elementary school. Children have recess every day, usually 30 minutes. If it is raining, we try do do an inside activity which may or may not involve movement, as adequate space is most oftentimes a problem. At some schools, on days when kids have PE and it is very hot out, there is no physical Recess per the PE teacher so the kids won't over exert themselves.

In kindergarten, we also do stretching and moving or dancing to music as part of the morning routine.

At recess, kids usually run about 2 laps depending on their age and then have physical play time. One problem I have found is that kids are so acclimated to air conditioning that if it is hot, they beg to come in early.

On days where it is hot, children usually walk their laps and then play. There is not much shade available at the schools I have subbed at so this adds to the problem of children wanting to come in.

In middle school, when my daughter was there, there were several weeks of PE and then several weeks of Health. I always felt this was very unhealthy as they are sedentary for several weeks if they are not involved in other outside physical activities. The reason I was given at the time is that kids "forget" which day is gym or health if they split these up in one week.

In high school, you have one requirement of PE for the entire four years and that is it. Most kids are involved in some kind of sport or activity such as dance. But at that age, you are on your own.

Hope this helps.

thebigswallow