March
2007
Who Has to Feed Our Children?
Two articles coming back to back regarding school lunch programs. Apparently students are being denied lunch, if they lose their lunch tickets. What’s worse: having hungry (and fidgety) children in the classroom, or teaching them responsibility by not losing the tickets in the first place. The solution: beg the population. “If each person in the community gave just one dollar …”
What about the parents? Isn’t that what parents should do, ensure that their kids are fed, rested, and clothed. No, the response is
It’s about aloha, loving the kid. Why deny them lunch? … People are obviously not thinking about the welfare of the child.
Yikes. I’d understand it for kids in kindergarten or the early elementary grades (but then you might not want to ask them to handle “meal tickets” in the first place), but once you get older …
(Originals found here and here.)
School lunch policies questioned
by Lisa Huynh
West Hawaii Today
Monday, March 12, 2007Prompted by an incident in which a Kohala High School student was denied lunch because he lost his lunch ticket, Hawaii Island administrators are revisiting a long-standing debate about school lunch policies.
The question of whether students should be given lunch when they lose their lunch tickets or forget to bring their lunch money — and whether grade level should guide policy — is a complicated one involving education and finances.
The Department of Education does not have an umbrella policy for how schools should handle lunch distribution. The issues are dealt with on a school-by-school basis, said Randy Moore of the Office of Business Services.
Often schools will provide lunches to students regardless of the situation but in doing so at least several Big Island schools have accrued school-lunch-loan debts. Further, educators have expressed the need to hold students accountable for their actions.
Lani Eugenio, the mother of a Kohala High student, recently appealed to the state DOE and the Board of Education to address problems related to school lunch policy after her son was denied lunch when he lost his lunch ticket and wasn’t able to pay for its replacement.
In a memo to the DOE and BOE titled “Feed Our Children,” Eugenio wrote that her “child lost his lunch ticket and asked that the $5 replacement fee be taken out of his account, which had nearly $100. It was denied and he was denied lunch.”
She said the department and board responded to her letter but have made no changes to the system.
Kohala High School Principal Catherine Bratt said the school has attempted to address the issue of lost school lunch tickets by offering to keep the tickets in the cafeteria, where students can retrieve and return them at meal times.
“If they haven’t had a ticket, we’ve basically given them wiggle room,” Bratt said. However, unpaid loans have led to the school accruing outstanding loans close to $50. Bratt said she’s heard of other schools that have had significantly higher debts from lending students money for lunch.
Hawaii’s public schools have automated systems in which parents are notified immediately when school lunch accounts are running low, said Bratt.
Schools are reimbursed by the federal and state governments for free and reduced lunches. The data from the lunch programs aids federal government tracking of low-income students.
In the 2005-2006 school year, roughly 6.6 million free meals and 2.3 million reduced-price meals were served in Hawaii, according to Glenna Owens, DOE school food services program manager. The state received about $18 million in federal reimbursements for free meals, and about $5.5 million for reduced-price meals.
West Hawaii Complex Area Superintendent Art Souza said the general understanding is all students are going to be fed. Before becoming superintendent, Souza said he inherited a school-lunch-loan debt when he was principal at Waikoloa Elementary.
“The difficulty is, how do we collect the school lunch loans?” Souza said. “It’s an ongoing problem and there’s no right or wrong answer.”
He added there are many levels of understanding on the issue. For some schools, making students responsible for their money and tickets is a form of teaching civic responsibility.
Standard practice from the state office is for elementary schools never to deny children food, said Owens. However, the same practice does not hold for high schools, likely because the students are expected to be more responsible.
Eugenio believes students should never be held accountable for their tickets, and that the school administration is responsible for feeding the students so they are not malnourished.
“It’s about aloha, loving the kid. Why deny them lunch?” she said. “… People are obviously not thinking about the welfare of the child.”
A different approach to solve the same problem.
Konawaena program ensures kids are fed
by Lisa Huynh
West Hawaii Today
Friday, March 16, 2007If each person in the community gave just one dollar, no student would go hungry. This idea led to a plan and a realization for Konawaena High School teacher Alex Cadang.
The lifelong educator’s idea came from an encounter with a student who, hungry and embarrassed, silently left the school cafeteria after being denied lunch because her meal account was empty.
“I was angry and approached the cafeteria manager about the situation. I asked, ‘Why not just give her the food?’ and he explained that he needed to follow the policies,” said Cadang, an in-school suspension specialist.
Instead of fixating on reasons why students should not or could not be fed, he sought a way in which they would.
Shortly after his encounter with the student, Cadang approached friend Ed Finnegan with the idea of starting a fund. It would help feed students who qualify for free or reduced lunch in emergency situations.
“What we tried to do was keep it very simple … children who have meal cards that are depleted may use our funds,” Finnegan said. “… Regardless of the amount of money you’re donating, you know that you are funding meals for kids.”
With the help of caring people in and outside of the school, and with the support of the Principal Shawn Suzuki, Cadang created the “No Child Left Hungry” Program. Despite Cadang’s not having advertised the program, word spread quickly around campus and many stepped forward to make donations.
“What’s wonderful about this is that people in the community have such a passion for the students. They just want to help our kids and families,” said Suzuki. “… This goes beyond giving money. They are not only giving their money, they are giving their time.”
Finnegan and Cadang call the plan a simple solution from simple folks, but they also acknowledge the larger implications of their collective efforts.
“I’d rather have 1,000 people give $1 than one person getting a tax write-off, because then people will understand the plight of our children,” said Cadang.
Konawaena is not alone in struggling to deal with state and federal school lunch policies prohibiting meal loans. West Hawaii Today highlighted the issue in a recent article involving Kohala High School.
Schools are reimbursed by the federal and state governments for free and reduced lunches. The data from the lunch programs aids federal government tracking of low-income students. In the 2005-2006 school year, roughly 6.6 million free meals and 2.3 million reduced-price meals were served in Hawaii, according to Glenna Owens, Department of Education school food services program manager. The state received about $18 million in federal reimbursements for free meals, and about $5.5 million for reduced-price meals.
Cadang said he wanted to share his school’s story in the hopes that it would help others determine their own solutions.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to look beyond the problem,” Cadang said. “We think we have a model that might help other schools.”
Even though Cadang said he knows the system will be abused by some, he still believes it is worthwhile.
The DOE does not have a policy for how schools should handle lunch distribution. The issues are dealt with on a school-by-school basis, said Randy Moore of the Office of Business Services.
Suzuki said implementation of the program does not negate the fact that students must be responsible for their meal cards.
“The expectation is students will still be responsible for their cards and showing us their identification,” he said. “This is just really a different vehicle for addressing the problems and I sure hope it will do some good.”
School cafeteria manager Kip Yamamoto said keeping meal cards in the cafeteria is difficult because, at the high school level, the students come in at different times and there are too many cards to look after.
“I told (Cadang) that (the program) is a good idea because there are kids that come in without cards or money. It’s a good thing when we can pull up the funds from a general account,” said Yamamoto.
Although he does not deal directly with the students most of the time, Yamamoto said it is hard for the cafeteria staff to turn away students.
For more information, contact Alex Cadang at 323-4500.