Sheep Shots: It Occurs To Me

Saturday, February 10, 2007

It Occurs To Me

that I have not published in several days.

Well, dudes, I have been busy.

I have prevented the premature deaths of several of the people with whom I work. Just call me The Guardian.*

It was all over a few paking spaces. Or perhaps I should say too few parking spaces. There are 13 of us (plus a van that belongs to the food bank) and 12 marked parking spaces. Shall I go on?

It's solved for the moment. We'll see how long the peace lasts.

More About School Meals: Did you know that the school meal program grew out of the U.S. military's need for draftees and recruits who were not malnourished?

The food that is served in the basic meal (the one that is offered non ala carte) must follow certain standards if the school district is to be reimbursed by the federal government. These include minimum serving sizes for protein, fruits and vegetables, grain, and dairy.

For breakfast, the requirements include 1/4 of the RDA for protein, calcium, irion, and Vitamins A & C. For lunch, the requirement is 1/3 of the daily RDA of the same nutrients. For both meals no more than 30% of total calories can come from fat, no more than 10% from saturated fat. These standards went into effect more than 10 years ago, and are very likely being revised to meet "MyPyramid" guidelines. You can read all the regs (if you are so inclined) by going to the USDA website. Search on something like "school meal regulations." Warning, it's dry, dull reading.

Schools that participate in "Healthy Choice" option for "extras" and vending machines (called "competitive foods") are entitled to additional reimbursements. This additional reimbursement is part of the PA "plan." What this means is that soda's out, juice and water are in. Veggies and fruit are replacing chips and fries. You can read more about the standards here .

If you think that the meals at your kids' schools are not up to snuff, please talk to the principal, the food service director, or the school board.

*Movie Review: The Guardian is fantastic! And this is coming from someone who pants ~~only slightly~~ a lot when watching Kevin Costner, and yawns ~~a lot~~ only slightly when watching basic training coming of age movies. Lots of action, not a lot of hitting, and only one swear word. No nudity, no sex. You could let your 10 year old watch! Oh, and there's a couple of strong, smart women, too.

Coming Soon: Pictures of actual knitting.

Labels: food programs

// posted by Ann @ 2/10/2007 10:13:00 PM

Comments:

thanks for the link. i will check it out. i've already had several teachers agree with me, so i'm going to investigate further. thanks for the other info as well.

i don't know why parking is such a big deal. so you have to walk an additional 10 feet. the only time i try to park close is when i have my mother with me. she's 79, and while she does walk on a daily basis, i don't think she needs to put up with the idiots who drive in parking lots, as she is deaf, and her vision isn't what it used to be. the rest of us can fend for ourselves, lol

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