There has been lots of media coverage about school lunches and how “unhealthy” that they are. Then there may be our own remembrances of school lunches, which at times are less than positive. However, NONE of that applies in RUSD as we have a great food nutrition program and our food service staff thinks it is all about nutrition and healthy eating habits.
As related on a local CBS affiliate states, five years ago, the first salad bars were initiated in the District and then expanded to all but one of our elementary schools. Our students enjoy the salad bars and eat much healthier as a result. As we are coming up on the five year anniversary, there will be a celebration including Undersecretary Kevin Concannon of the USDA from Washington, D.C. The celebration will be held on April 16th at Emerson Elementary School at 9:30 a.m. As an additional welcome, students have offered an invitation to First Lady Michelle Obama to attend.
We welcome all of you to attend this great celebration of what is “right” with our cafeteria food and efforts in RUSD. As a bonus, we have a public service announcement (click here) regarding the GREAT food service program in our District.
Can we please do something about the block on YouTube? District computers cannot access YouTube, which means we can't watch the video of the students inviting the First Lady to the ceremony. The district spends a lot of money on Light Speed filter; isn't there some kind of setting to filter YouTube instead of blocking all content? As a teacher, I would love to use YouTube in the classroom. If we are truly a district of innovation then we need to begin opening up resources, instead of blocking them.
ReplyDeleteTry uploading to TeacheTube.com It is a similar website that is filtered towards mostly educational and classroom appropriate videos. If it is on YouTube and educational, often you will find it on TeacherTube too.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I use teacher tube, but You Tube allows for so much more control and much higher quality. Teacher tube is ok for viewing, but if my class creates a video and we want to share it, You Tube provides many more features and capabilities than teacher tube. My main complaint is with the light speed filter system. Our district pays a lot of money for the system, but does not use the You Tube filter portion. It just doesn't make sense.
ReplyDeleteI will have consultants walking with me way out on the playfields at our middle schools, and they will smell a wonderful BBQ aroma and are shocked when I tell them it's the school, not one of the neighbors. And if the smell of the BBQ doesn't get you, the smell of 600 cookies baking will! What a far cry from the pizza cooked on Wonder bread with the cheese sticking to the cellophane wrapping I got when I was in school.
ReplyDeleteHats off to Rodney Taylor for dramatically improving our school lunches. Nobody can joke about cafeteria food here!
Our school lunches may be better than what is offered elsewhere but still leave much to be desired. I cannot consider waffle sticks with maple-flavored (HFCS) syrup and sausage patties a healthy school lunch. The majority of the foods served appear to be processed foods, not the whole foods our children need to grow healthy bodies. Yes, the salad bars offer a much needed alternative to the hot lunches, but we are still a long way from serving the optimal diet to our kids. Have you seen the breakfast cereals offered? Couldn't we offer plain Cheerios along with those horrible high-sugar cereals? It would be far easier to let my son start off his day at the school cafeteria but I believe his day should start off in a much healthier manner, so he eats steel-cut oatmeal or PLAIN Cheerios with WHOLE fruit at home. I am a parent AND a teacher in RUSD so I see what is served in the elementary schools daily. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on ABC is a great guide to reforming the school lunch program.
ReplyDeleteCome to a middle school lunch and you will be upset about what the students are eating. We do not have salad bars. The student's favorite is HOT CHEETOS which they put in their drinks, crush to put on other food and just throw in their mouths by the handfuls. Yes, there are burgers and chicken sandwiches....but the fruit that is offered is bad. The basic nutritional basis of the lunch depends on the milk served. They basically burst the containers or pour the milk into the trash cans. Many students are sensitive to milk and will not drink it even when forced to take it (to make the lunch complete). Their vegetables are more bags of chips. It is no wonder that after lunch we have the greatest amount of discipline problems - after the students have eaten all that highly processed sugar and fat. Add up the calories one day and you will be shocked at how many calories are in these lunches that the students are consuming....no wonder many of them are over weight....I dare Rodney to come and check it out. Come pick 5 random students and count the calories (fat and sugar) and see how nutritous their meal is. Also there is a real problem with many of the girls not eating becaue the pizza, hamburgers etc have so many calories...they do not eat to try and not gain weight and are hungry the rest of the day....not a good way to learn after lunch either.
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