Tavares, FL - Oct. 2, 2012
Yup – Lake County is in the big time now…
Also, there are some good videos about school lunch programs on that page.
Here is a video on comedian Jon Stewart’s take on Michelle Obama’s school lunch programs. Watch the video or read the text. “Kids are throwing out twice as much food as last year…”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/28/school-lunch-fight-jon-st_n_1922703.html
“That's where students across the country are waging war against the first lady. Teens from Kansas to Wisconsin have staged protests against the new school lunches, launching Twitter campaigns, boycotting cafeteria meals and filming videos in hopes of bringing widespread attention to their cause: the new rules are too restrictive, leaving kids hungry. Growing adolescents, teens say, require more calories because they're burning more through sports and other activities.”
A written response was received to our earlier post on the Lake County School lunched where we stated that there didn’t seem to be much interest in measuring the amount of waste :
The earlier post was here:
Here is the response from the head of the School Lunch program Gary Dodds – notice he states one of the factors, which is the Federal government MANDATES that the kids take fruits and veggies which they may not want, thus they throw them out. Thus we agree the Federal government is a big part of this problem
I like to respond to Mr. Jochim comments about the plate waste issue at a recent board workshop. I said I was not opposed of any waste study but the study must be done in a professional way in order to measure results. First it would have to be determined what sample schools to conduct the survey and how the survey was measured. In the past we have received information from our staff and students and production records to determine food waste. My point was if the study was not conducted properly we may come up with the wrong results . One possible solution is to have USDA do this type of survey with our district and other districts in the country since they made the regulations and there would be no costs to conduct the survey to local tax payers.
The other comment I disagree in Mr. Jochim blog is about free money from the government. We do not receive free money from the government for free school meals. The federal government reimburses Lake County Food Department for the labor and food cost to free or reduced eligible families. So a plate waste study could be useful in determining what foods to purchase so they go into the students bodies instead of the trash. Keep in mind that no matter what is done with the present regulations there will be some plate waste because the students must now choose a fruit or vegetable. When I am surveyed by the USDA about the new regulations, I will recommend that they change the requirement and not make it mandatory for a student to take a fruit or vegetable.
The last point I would like to make is the Lake County School Food Program is operated under a separate
budget and all expenses are paid through revenues of school meal prices therefore parents who choose not to participate in the program do not pay extra local school taxes to support the program. (They just pay for it via Federal taxes – aka FREE MONEY – ed)
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the School Food Program.
Gary Dodds, SFNS
Lake County Schools
Supervisor of Food Services
(352) 742-6970
(352)324-3088 fax
