Schools to lop junk off menu

Westwind wrote:

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Have you ever visited a school cafeteria? Have you ever asked the kids why they don't buy school lunches? Have you ever asked their parents why after all these years they haven't sent their kids to school with healthy lunches?
It's because people like you expect the federal & state governments to provide and subsidize what you spout off as being most important, healthy foods.
Do you give your kids healthy beverages so they don't buy the soda, or are you expecting DOE to do your job? Oh no, you expect DOE to remove the soda machines! What do you and the other self righteous people expect for $1.25? To answer your stupid question, parents are responsible to provide healthy foods and beverages for their kids, not the DOE, idiot!

I don't agree with this post. Give them the healthiest food you can for the $1.25 that you charge them. Junk food has no place in school. Pau.

Parents trust schools to provide reasonably healthy lunches for their kids but realize there's not much you can do for $1.25. If there's a way to have healthier lunches and keep the price down, then it should be done. Why should we be even discussing this? What is the purpose of having sodas in school vending machines? Can't be for the benefit of school kids.

Westwind wrote:

<quoted text>
Have you ever visited a school cafeteria? Have you ever asked the kids why they don't buy school lunches? Have you ever asked their parents why after all these years they haven't sent their kids to school with healthy lunches?
It's because people like you expect the federal & state governments to provide and subsidize what you spout off as being most important, healthy foods.
Do you give your kids healthy beverages so they don't buy the soda, or are you expecting DOE to do your job? Oh no, you expect DOE to remove the soda machines! What do you and the other self righteous people expect for $1.25? To answer your stupid question, parents are responsible to provide healthy foods and beverages for their kids, not the DOE, idiot!

Just to confirm. So you are alright with not having the healthiest food for the price in schools because you think parents concerned about school lunches are self righteous in expecting schools to provide the healthiest lunches for the price. You don't find anything wrong with soda machines in schools and think the extra money that might have to be spent (if any) is not worth spending on kids health.

Westwind wrote:

<quoted text>
Have you ever visited a school cafeteria? Have you ever asked the kids why they don't buy school lunches? Have you ever asked their parents why after all these years they haven't sent their kids to school with healthy lunches?
It's because people like you expect the federal & state governments to provide and subsidize what you spout off as being most important, healthy foods.
Do you give your kids healthy beverages so they don't buy the soda, or are you expecting DOE to do your job? Oh no, you expect DOE to remove the soda machines! What do you and the other self righteous people expect for $1.25? To answer your stupid question, parents are responsible to provide healthy foods and beverages for their kids, not the DOE, idiot!

Is this even worth responding to? Schools should have been providing healthy food to kids before this new policy was introduced. Hot dogs, saimin, sodas, should not be in schools. I would expect that, even at $1.25, the food should be the healthiest it can be for the budget.

Joe Bla wrote:

I don't think Kobe Bryant should have gotten the MVP.

That's right! Chris Paul should have!!!!

Bummer, the peanut butter cookies was the best

kailua girl wrote:

Bummer, the peanut butter cookies was the best

That was kind of healthy, wasn't it? Too many kids with allergies to peanuts these days.

EDs wrote:

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I agree. I have been a teacher and now a counselor for 22 years in the DOE. I have fun PE programs, fitness programs. I am concerned at the elementary level when DOE is saying to add PE minutes when they don't provide a qualified PE teacher to do PE. And when are the teachers going to do it? Hamamoto, do you look at the standards at all? The teachers have to cram a year's work in 3 quarters because the HSA test is in april. Shibai! Good in principle. It is like telling Duke's basketball team to win the state with 20 minutes of practice and get a coach who doesn't know anything about basketball.

Well stated. I am an educator in the DOE and the focus is more on reading and writing to pass the AYP tests in april. Furthermore, I live in a low income community, I teach in a low income community, "health food?" What's that?? Seriously. And for fundraisers..school programs will now suffer dearly. Why? Because noone will want to buy anything that is not healthy. Junk food sells. It's cheap and it's what the people in my community will pay for.
Along with this policy will come new worries: How are we going to fund X program now? How are we going to provide incentives for the students who participate?
Furthermore, where are the parental roles in all of this? Sheesh, with teaching as a career, who needs kids of your own? You constantly have to raise all of them 10 months a year and accountable for it as well. Way more than the parents are.

I find that healthier foods cost more. Are they really going to keep within budget? What in the budget are we willing to give up? Maybe we can steal the money from C and C, Mufi's trainset for example.

Westside Wind wrote:

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I suggest you go and actually visit a school cafeteria to get a reality check.
As I posted earlier, people who expect schools to instill the healthy choice and nutrition in the children while the same is not practiced @ home is really naive.
It starts at each home and parents of those children. If there is no education of the parents so they can partner with the DOE it isn't going to work. Lifestyle choices unfortunately are not standardized!
For the parents who care, make lunch and take direct care of your children
And for the poster about 15 minutes why don't you get off your duff and got to the school to find out and clarify.
Unconfirmed that becomes an irresponsible statement and perhaps unfair if not true.

I thoroughly agree with you. Instead of putting more on the plates of overworked, over-stressed, and deeply underpaid educators, target parents. Homes, that's where good habits start. Kids don't come to school and the turn nasty because of school. Considering how many adults there are trying to help the child (well, at least at my school, can't speak for all schools). Where I live, parents' attitude towards school reflect and show through the children during school and how well a parent is willing to work with the school also determines the outcome of the child. Sure there are those "unique" cases, but for the most part it is true. Good health begins at home. If parents are not practicing it at home, then how are schools expected to live up to it? Oh, I know, because it is the one social branch that governments can actually control.

kailua girl wrote:

I find that healthier foods cost more. Are they really going to keep within budget? What in the budget are we willing to give up? Maybe we can steal the money from C and C, Mufi's trainset for example.

Well, with constant budget cuts to....EDUCATION...I don't know where the money is going to come up to fund this brilliant idea. I mean, the government could not put money down to randomly drug test educators, but it's going to find money to provide a "healthier" menu??

Perhaps others have mentioned this, but fundraising for field trips, athletic fundraisers of sausages, fundraising food sales at football games (candy and hamburgers), etc. will ALL be greatly limited as a result of this decision. I'm not sure the bag of carrots will be a big seller to students during their fundraising efforts. Perhaps the Board of Education can figure out a realistic way to fund these special trips rather than expect the teachers to put up the money and hope to be repaid when they sell sodas after school. I have personally put up nearly $3000 to prepay for cookies that were then sold by and for students to go on an overnighter field trip to visit Native Hawaiian sites on Oahu. I was finally repaid since those cookies sold well, but I don't think they'll fit into the new restrictions. What about Zippy's Chili? Isn't the fat content too high to sell coupons, or is that one of the loopholes in this idea? Do Duke's teams raise funds by selling celery and apples? Let's get realistic about health, Education, and money...

FYI Kaneshiro is no longer with the DOE.

Westside Wind wrote:

In today's society, these children are given fast food choices by their parents daily.
The slippery slope that the DOE foodservice (Kaneshiro) faces is a continual slide whereby the children rather wait till after school to buy something to eat, that' a fact.
Offering healthy looks good from the political sense, but not practical from the common sense perspective.

Ralph wrote:

FYI Kaneshiro is no longer with the DOE.
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Smart, finally got out of the impossible situation, parents expecting them to provide at the time healthy lunches for $1.00!!!!
Now it's $1.25 they want fresh fruits and vegetables. Gene Kaneshiro wanted to upgrade the menu but he knew parents wouldn't pay $3.00 or more. These same people would not hesitate to pay $5 for a value meal at a fast food.
They expect $1.25 meal that "cost" $3.00. I'm not against healthier diets and menu's, I'm against people who don't want to pay the true price for that lifestyle change & expects continued government subsidies and entitlement programs. It's your child so put your money where your mouth is!

Bugga wrote:

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Just to confirm. So you are alright with not having the healthiest food for the price in schools because you think parents concerned about school lunches are self righteous in expecting schools to provide the healthiest lunches for the price. You don't find anything wrong with soda machines in schools and think the extra money that might have to be spent (if any) is not worth spending on kids health.

Permit me to confirm this, if you as a parent "expects" the schools to provide healthier lunches; "I" expect you to be prepared to pay the correct price unless you qualify for the free or reduced price program.
My point about the soda machine is if you as a parent who has taught your child about health & drinking milk, why then would your child go and spend the money on soda???
Does your child really understand the difference, or if they make the wrong choice it's the DOE's fault not your's as a parent.

Westside Wind wrote:

<quoted text>
Permit me to confirm this, if you as a parent "expects" the schools to provide healthier lunches; "I" expect you to be prepared to pay the correct price unless you qualify for the free or reduced price program.
My point about the soda machine is if you as a parent who has taught your child about health & drinking milk, why then would your child go and spend the money on soda???
Does your child really understand the difference, or if they make the wrong choice it's the DOE's fault not your's as a parent.

Why are you so angry about providing healthier food to the kids? This is a simple issue, clean up the menu with healthier food. No one said more expensive food, just healthier. No one has even asked that the DOE pay more than they already do. Do you even understand what healthy food is? It doesn't mean just bean sprouts and tofu. It can be eveyday items just prepared with better ingredients and imporved cooking methods. There is no reason to have soda in the schools. Pointing this out doesn't make someone self righteous just caring. You don't seem to care much about the kids of the health crisis that many of these kids will find themselves in. Kids with diabetes because of poor diet is inexcusable in this day and age. You don't seem to care about the kids at all.

How about the endangered Peruvian salamander? Any comments on that?

What!!!!!! I'm heading to the capital to insist on at least $5,000,000 for a study.

Study??? I thought that was what school was all about, not serving food and exercise.

Vegas Guy, who said I was angry..
My son and two daughters graduated from the public school system, have successful careers and are healthy.
I commend the cafeteria managers over these decades for preparing the best they could with the very limited options that they had.
For people like you to suggest that they weren't attaining the most healthy meals they could are ignorant of the real facts.
To attain that, go talk to a cafeteria manager and get the truth.
I look forward to reading your post after that.

leeward lolo wrote:

How about the endangered Peruvian salamander? Any comments on that?
What!!!!!! I'm heading to the capital to insist on at least $5,000,000 for a study.
Study??? I thought that was what school was all about, not serving food and exercise.

School is about educating the whole child. Exercise and health (food and nutrition, decision making) is and should be included in the curriculum. And yes it should also be taught at home. Way too many parents don't care much about their own health and it seems, the health of their children

hisensei wrote:

<quoted text>
Well stated. I am an educator in the DOE and the focus is more on reading and writing to pass the AYP tests in april. Furthermore, I live in a low income community, I teach in a low income community, "health food?" What's that?? Seriously. And for fundraisers..school programs will now suffer dearly. Why? Because noone will want to buy anything that is not healthy. Junk food sells. It's cheap and it's what the people in my community will pay for.
Along with this policy will come new worries: How are we going to fund X program now? How are we going to provide incentives for the students who participate?
Furthermore, where are the parental roles in all of this? Sheesh, with teaching as a career, who needs kids of your own? You constantly have to raise all of them 10 months a year and accountable for it as well. Way more than the parents are.

Talking about lunches and vending machines. No one said anything about fund raisers. You don't sound like an educator. If you were, you would know that most funding for special programs come from donations, parents, etc. You could sell tooth picks and people would donate just because it is for school programs