nosh nook #4 - thursday, march 19, 2009

school snack program meets needs (link)
03.18.09 - ourvalley.org - by frances stebbins

eating it up (link)
03.18.09 - san diego union tribune - by caroline dipping

here in brooklyn, i see it all the time--kids on their way to school in the morning having a bag of cool ranch doritos & a tiny blue drink thingy for breakfast. of course, once they're done consuming this nutritious breakfast, the majority of them toss the containers wherever they feel, but that's ok, because the adults do it too. the point is, low-income kids often eat like absolute crap.

oh quaint feel-good news. the first piece, by frances stebbins, talks about $1,670 in donations in salem, va made to the "area churches together" project, who then bought snacks (things like fruit cups, whole grain bars, pretzels) at a discount store & distributed them to elementary schools. if other people want to get in on the free food, they need a referral from a service agency or church. it's a homey little piece of "journalism," pretty much just information on different donations & how to give them. how quaint.

the second piece, by caroline dipping (great name!), covers a san diego organization responsible for preparing 10,000 meals & snacks for 4,000 low-income kids. last year, the organization got a new director, who came on & noticed that everything was canned & frozen & processed, so over the last year, she's totally overhauled the program with increased culinary skills amongst workers, more prepared foods & less processed foods. now kids can get three meals & a snack for $7.98 a day...& they get bombtastic snacks like yogurt parfait with granola & berries and sweet potato yogurt with graham crackers. sweet potato yogurt! holy crap! you stay classy, san diego!