Chocolate for breakfast!... Concerns regarding Breakfast in the Classroom
[Editor's Note: The following is the prepared text of the statement by Meredith Crowley, a parent whose child attends South Loop Elementary School. Ms. Crowley spoke at the Chicago Board of Education meeting of May 25, 2011 joining other parents who have continued their criticisms of the "Breakfast in the Classroom" program despite the claims by Board President Mary Richardson Lowry that critics of the program are against feeding hungry children. Members of the Board of Education and their president continued to repeat the Board's talking points while ignoring the fact that the Breakfast in the Classroom program is taking away instructional time, especially in the elementary schools (at a time when Mayor Rahm Emanuel is blaming the teachers and teachers' union for the lack of instructional time). These remarks are reprinted here as provided to Substance by the writer. Others who delivered statements to the Board can have them shared here at BOARDWATCH at substancenews.net by sending them via e-mail to Substance, Csubstance@aol.com.]
Chicago parent Meredith Crowley hold a box of chocolate mini-wheats while colleagues hold other visual aids during the May 25, 2011 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. A growing number of parents are protesting what is called the "Breakfast in the Classroom" program for disrupting classroom instruction in the city's elementary schools while serving junk food to students and risking the health of students with food allergies. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.On January 26, 2011, this body adopted a policy mandating that all CPS elementary schools offer breakfast to students as they enter their classrooms at the start of the school day. Parent groups have expressed concerns regarding this policy at Board meetings in January, February, March and April. To date, the response from this body has been inadequate. The Board has insinuated that parents who oppose the new breakfast policy don't care about Chicago's impoverished children.
Twenty years ago, my late father, [Paul W. Crowley,] dedicated his legislative career to expanding the federal School Breakfast Program across Rhode Island. At the time of his death, my hometown newspaper wrote: "He was responsible for feeding thousands of Rhode Island children."
With free breakfast available at all elementary schools in [my new hometown of] Chicago, I thought that we were winning the battle to improve children’s nutritional well-being.
Then came "Breakfast in the Classroom." It arrived at my children's school on April 14, 2011. Day one brought a mini-muffin or an egg sandwich. Day two brought pancakes or chocolate cereal — chocolate cereal!
May 4, brought Rice Krispie bars which prompted my second-grader to ask: "Why are they serving dessert for breakfast?"
Why is CPS offering junk food to its entire population of elementary school students? Aren’t rates of obesity and diabetes rising fast enough already?
Chocolate cereal increases the breakfast take-up rate, [at least,] according to my second-grader. And it's the take-up rate that determines the size of the USDA payment to CPS. My generation is losing the battle to improve children's nutrition because CPS can plug a budget hole by feeding junk food to poor kids!
Please give someone at CPS a red pen and ask them to go through the Chartwells menu. Ditch the desserts! Redline the Rice Krispie bars! Freeze out the Frosted Mini Wheats!
This might hurt CPS revenues. The breakfast take-up rate could fall if kids who would eagerly grab Rice Krispie breakfast bars turn down bowls of corn flakes. But then, kids who only eat breakfast because it’s loaded with sugar aren't the hungry ones. And, although having the program generate revenue is a plus, isn’t the ultimate goal to give kids — especially the poor and hungry ones — nutritious food at the start of their day?
My name is Meredith Crowley. I am a CPS mother and I will not stand by while you sacrifice the long-term health of children for short-term financial gain!
By: John Kugler
Food Scam and Dangers
anyone that has been keeping up on this issue knows that this is more about crony contractors and vendors supplying sub-standard food to children to get lucrative government contracts. If this would happen in any other country in the world people would be put in prison for poisoning children with chemicals and processed foods.
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Chicago School Bans Brown Bag Lunches, But Is It for the Kids?
April 11, 2011
http://www.good.is/post/chicago-school-bans-brown-bag-lunches-but-is-it-for-the-kids/
Any school that bans homemade lunches also puts more money in the pockets of the district's food provider, Chartwells-Thompson. The federal government pays the district for each free or reduced-price lunch taken, and the caterer receives a set fee from the district per lunch.
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Chicago high schoolers to demand better food at meeting
March 22, 2010
http://archive.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/03/chicago-high-schoolers-to-demand-better-food.html
One of those students is Teresa Onstott, a sophomore at Social Justice High School who last week practiced a speech that details the "sickening pizza, chicken sandwiches and nachos" the district serves each day and urges the board not to renew the contract for the company providing the food.
That company, Chartwells-Thompson, has provided food service to the district for nearly a decade. This year its contract is up, and during the next month the board will be reviewing bids for the next CPS food service contract, valued at about $58 million a year.
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Why Doesn't the Los Angeles Unified School District Want Jamie Oliver's Help?
January 12, 2011
http://www.good.is/post/why-doesn-t-the-los-angeles-unified-school-district-want-jamie-oliver-s-help/
Los Angeles's school children certainly could use Oliver's help. Most LAUSD cafeterias serve things like pizza, tater tots, and bean burritos, and according to the latest CDC study, only 20 percent of Los Angeles high school students eat fruit or vegetables five times per day.
Despite LAUSD's refusal, Oliver is pressing ahead the second season of Food Revolution because "what happens in schools in food is an incredible weapon or problem in terms of the obesity epidemic." Instead of filming in cafeterias, he plans to follow families, grocery stores, and fast food vendors.
http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/pdf/obesity/losangeles_obesity_combo.pdf
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L.A. school district fights back at Jamie Oliver over quality of school food
April 13, 2011
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/04/la-school-district-fights-back-at-jamie-oliver-over-quality-of-school-food.html
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