topic Re: Helping kids with food insecurity in Community Chat

Helping kids with food insecurity

feline groovy — Sun, 14 Apr 2019 23:09:39 GMT

never assume that kids are fully provided for

Indiana school district turns unused cafeteria food into take-home meals for students who may not get enough to eat at the weekends

Elkhart School District announced Friday that they will now work with Cultivate
Cultivate is a nonprofit that 'rescues food, packages meals and serves meals'
Twenty students at Woodland Elementary will receive meals for the weekend

DailyMail.co.UK

PUBLISHED: 12:19 EDT, 3 April 2019 | UPDATED: 13:18 EDT, 3 April 2019

An Indiana school district will turn unused cafeteria food into take-home meals for students who are in need thanks to a partnership with a local nonprofit organization.

The Elkhart School District announced on Friday that they will now be working with Cultivate, a non-profit group that 'rescues food, packages meals and serves meals to people who are food insecure'.

At Woodland Elementary, 20 students will go home each Friday with meals for the weekend.

This service will be provided until the end of the school year.

Administrators said the students were identified by staffers at the elementary school.

According to a statement from the district, Cultivate will rescue the unused food within the Elkhart Community Schools district to provide the meals.

Cultivate's president, Jim Conklin, explained to WSBT how the process works: 'Mostly, we rescue food that’s been made but never served by catering companies, large food service businesses, like the school system.'

'You don't always think of a school,' he added.

The district said in the statement that Cultivate's 'process has been reviewed and approved by the Elkhart County Health Department and Indiana Department of Education, and meets strict criteria to ensure safe food handling for students'.

Natalie Bickel, who works for the school district's student services department, told WSBT that they identified the need after they noticed they were wasting a lot of cafeteria food.

But through the partnership with Cultivate, food will be salvaged by volunteers of the organization three times a week.

Cultivate has been in place in St Joseph County since 2017.

The idea to bring Cultivate's program to Elkhart came from a group of participants in the Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce Leadership Academy, a nine-month program whose mission is to promote servant leadership through an awareness program combining key community issues and enhanced leadership skill development to advance community stewardship.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

dex — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 14:16:47 GMT

@feline groovy @The problem is that some kids don’t care for the healthy food choices and that is why a lot of the food is left.I regularly come across fruit on the side of the road after the kids get out of school.I pick up some of it to feed to the goats I treat but they don’t seem to care for it either.The goats prefer baby cookies.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

happycat — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 14:18:05 GMT

This is great to see.

I have noticed a lot of similar things where I live. Its hard to imagine that so any could be in need, but I believe they are. We have no idea how anyone else is living. I hate thinking of children going hungry.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

millieshops — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 14:37:45 GMT

@dexI agree that "some" kids reject some food, but if we wait for the perfect solution to the food insecurity of some kids, we'll never find a solution.

I think the best need for food was brought home to me during my very first year of teaching when I heard one eighth grader watch the sky and wish we'd have a snow day. Pretty much agreed upon except for the one classmate who didn't agree, :saying "Lunch is the only hot meal I ever get." That shut up the whole room, but he had just taught me a very valuable lesson because even though I'd grown up poor, I was never that poor.

I applaud that school district for trying to help. There will be some kids who accept.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

Sooner — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 14:40:09 GMT

I think programs like that should not be handled through schools. Teachers are not trained, they have no way to really identify need and I think that when teachers and education in general is in dire lack of funding, this should be done through established agencies that deal with need and are staffed and trained to do it.

I think it is wonderful that unused food goes to those in need. But I think it should be done in a fair way--and I don't think schools are able to assess read need. You would not have social services folks teach. . .

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

cherry — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 14:43:44 GMT

Bread for the World deals with food insolvency and treats everyone the same. If any of you are interested.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

millieshops — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 14:45:40 GMT

@SoonerOn a guess, these foods are going to kids who are already on free or reduced priced lunches. Where I taught, the teachers were not involved in making those decisions. Various agencies in and out of the schools were.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

chrystaltree — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 14:49:15 GMT

Food insecurity....LOL Let's just use real words and call them families in need. It's a great idea, we waste too much food in this country and there are too many hungry people in this country. There's a program that I like locally. They package and wrap all the leftover meals from the lunchroom along with fruit and set it out on tables for the kids to take as they are leaving school. There's no stigma attached because it's not just for needy students. Any student can take as much as they want; so, need kids can take enough for their siblings or breakfast the next day. But, they find that the kids on sports teams are taking food and kids who go home to an empty house can take something home for an afternoon snack, rather than the chips and candy they would eat. It worked in ways they had not thought of.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

dex — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 14:51:58 GMT

@millieshops @I really think the problem is not only being poor...it is that a lot of parents don’t cook.I grew up really poor but we always had food.My mom made oatmeal everyday..yuck but that is what we could afford.She baked bread and we usually had a thin layer of peanut butter on that with half an apple or orange for lunch.Dinner was mostly veg with a little meat in an old pressure cooker.My mom worked and was a single mom so she didn’t have a lot of time for meal prep but in those days if you didn’t look out for yourself you were in trouble.We were never hungry but I would say that we didn’t have anything fancy to eat.I think the schools should teach simple cooking and meal planning.My son says most of his friends don’t cook and spend so much money eating out or picking up fast food that they are always complaining they are short of money.He tries to get them to add it up for a week and then the next week go to the grocery store with that same money and see how much food they can purchase.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

Cakers3 — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 15:02:20 GMT

It's a shame that any child and the child's family does not have enough to eat.

These programs are helping but the iceberg dips much deeper regarding this issue.

I agree that parents are busy working, don't have time to cook, fast food is a family dinner now where before it was a treat.

Food banks tend to run out of food or at least end up with severed shortages once the holidays have passed.

No wonder we have such an increase in behavioral problems in young children; the lack of proper nutrition is key for them.

And it's only going to get worse-when families cannot afford to feed their children and depend upon food banks, churches, and schools-the problem will affect all of us.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

Bird mama — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 15:03:41 GMT

Gleaners Food Bank here in Michigan distributes food to children year 'round because they understand that 2 out of 3 meals a child eats is in school.

Before I retired I worked for a VP that had an annual meeting and at each meeting he would have speakers from a charity that our division would support that year with either food or money donations. I will give it up to Brian because whatever the division donated money wise he matched so it was doubled. Understanding that a VP made more than the people who worked for him, he also knew as did we that we would really rally as a group so he would get stung a high personal amount

Please don't rain on my parade here and tell me he could afford it or it was tax deductible - just enjoy the spirit of the thing, thanks.

One year Gleaners came in to talk to us and ran a video about their backpack program where they send food home on the weekends with kids so they kids won't go hungry then.

There was a little girl who mentioned her sister wasn't school age yet and she asked if her (little girl) portion could go to her sister at home who wasn't old enough to go to school and get food.

That wrecked me so bad I was bent over in my chair sobbing. You could hear me through the entire auditorium - I couldn't stifle myself.

Suffice it to say I've been a Gleaners supporter for years.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

LTT1 — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 15:05:42 GMT

@feline groovy

Hopefully this process will work.

If even one sincerely needy child is helped, it will be worth the effort.

I was only consulted once maybe twice if I thought a student might be in need and unidentified.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

qualitygal — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 15:09:40 GMT

I'm glad someone is trying to help!!! These are growing children among those who need good food to grow. Their brains and bodies are developing. The parents, if getting those meals too can be an example to the children. They can all set down, if lucky enough, to enjoy a meal together. (Providing work schedules agree).

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

cherry — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 15:14:24 GMT

@Bird mama we also have Food Gathers, that do the same thing ,and supply many churches with food ,to be handed out to the needy. WE have a lot of good people in this country, and each are helping someone. If we all do a little, it adds up to a lot

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

Sooner — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 15:16:16 GMT

@millieshops wrote:
@SoonerOn a guess, these foods are going to kids who are already on free or reduced priced lunches. Where I taught, the teachers were not involved in making those decisions. Various agencies in and out of the schools were.

@millieshops That's what I am talking about. I think there should be some avenue for making sure that people who are in need get help. And that those who don't qualify for help aren't stealing from them. I think that is the responsibility of people to see that those who really need help get it.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

cherry — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 15:20:33 GMT

You can live in a big home ,and still not be well fed. Many people are head over heels in debt. I know of a family ,with a Dad with a wonderful job, that used food banks, because they were in such bad shape financially

We never turn anyone down, that asks for food. Hunger is hunger, no matter where you live, or work.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

Bird mama — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 15:21:51 GMT

That's how I see it too @cherry .

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

Cakers3 — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 15:26:59 GMT

Our food bank has 4 farms encompassing 75 acres total.

Fruit, greens, veggies, herbs. etc. are grown. All fresh food; nothing already prepared.

The markets are then spread throughout the county; 14 markets in all on designated days and times.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

Pook — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 16:28:31 GMT

It is a great idea but the sad reality is that those families who are really struggling are the ones that won't apply for SNAP and other help and will not go to food banks, etc. The ones that get it all are the ones that get SNAP and other benefits which would adequately provide for their children. They qualify for free coats, boots, etc as well as school clothing supplies so they should be able to at least feed their kids properly. With SNAP there is enough to go around food wise if the parents don't sell their benefits for their own pleasures - cigarettes, alcohol and drugs! Many don't know how to shop even semi wisely and prepare food. Other parents also take the food meant for the children and the kids get very little if any of it. I know my mother would have starved rather than send us to school without breakfast and a lunch.

Re: Helping kids with food insecurity

hckynut — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 16:35:48 GMT

Let us not forget that millions of United States born children are: Over Fed and UNDERNOURISHED! This is very seldom mentioned and child obesity is a BIG thing in our country.

hckynut