A CNN report highlights the value of Bridgeport’s breakfast program in classrooms and why that’s important for low-income children’s development. The report follows students at Wilbur Cross School so close to the recent shootings at Trumbull Gardens housing project that wounded eight and took a man’s life. Check out the video that includes interviews with city educators including the head of the Nutrition Program Maura O’Malley.
As stated by the Education Authority, good nutrition is essential for children to grow properly, do their best in school and be healthy and happy in the future. Schools must take a whole school approach to food and drink provided and consumed in school. This approach includes developing children’s skills and knowledge about a healthy diet and lifestyle, inside and outside of school.
An essential factor regarding nutrition in schools is the option for hot school meals, allowing schools to control the nutritional content of meals served to abide by strict nutrition regulations not monitored with packed lunches.
Hot school meals protect the most vulnerable children eligible for free school meals against hunger and help safeguard pupils with allergies in the dining hall by regulating what goes into meals provided and should always be encouraged over packed lunches.
To have United States communities so distressed American families can’t meet the basic needs of their children and the civil authorities can’t maintain safety and order in these communities should bring great shame to all of us.
What happened to this country? How did we allow our prosperity to be squandered in the accommodation of the interests of multinational corporations and unjustifiable military agendas?
When will we wake up and start voting en masse to reclaim control of our government–at the local, state, and national levels?
Again; I would have our mayoral candidates and our governor take a public stance on the TPP. We already know where our congressional delegation and president stand on that rotten-herring of an issue.
Foundational work for public health, safety, and education, for the here and now and the long-term, in small steps in a landscape of, let’s face it, poverty. Poverty. Poverty. Poverty.
Thank you Ms. Zelem, Ms. Tisdale, Ms. O’Malley, Dr. Ward, and students for making real strides, despite the real challenges.
I hope CT State Senator Toni Boucher sees this CNN report and reconsiders her public statement earlier this year:
“I’ve heard parent after parent saying, ‘I don’t mind my tax dollars going to Bridgeport schools, if only they would get better outcomes.'”
Well then Toni, maybe it’s time to get those parents on a bus to visit the Wilbur Cross kids and to wake up, a little?
Also, I’m impressed by the clear, comprehensive, easy-to-understand public site
www .bridgeportedu.com/nutrition/index.html
And yet, as everyone can see, there’s lots more WE have to do, honestly, if we care beyond an election cycle.
I liked the following comments from an on-the-front-lines Minneapolis public school social worker, which I came across last year:
“A great deal has been written about the impact of poverty on educational success. Until our city, our state, and our country put children first by helping low-income families access the resources they need to care for their children and build better lives for themselves, we will have an achievement gap.
“This does not mean that we can do nothing about the achievement gap in the schools. It simply means that blaming the schools is not only unreasonable, it is counterproductive. Our state and local government, businesses, families, the school board, district leadership, the union, and teachers all need to collaborate with good will and the belief that we all want all children to succeed. If we can do that, the next step is to find the tools to help us problem-solve. We need unbiased, well-documented research about what works and then we need to apply it.”–Dottie Brown
www .minnpost.com/learning-curve/2013/04/speaker-steve-perry-provokes-heated-exchange-education-reform
This is a very real issue impacting many Bridgeport students and their families.
This summer free breakfast and lunch is being offered in a variety of our schools.
I have seen it all. So true, so sad. Wilbur Cross had Darleen Meekins and now Ms. Tisdale. Both extremely caring and nurturing. I have always enjoyed going to that school even after my Touchpad was stolen! The problem with the breakfast is they are high sugar all carbs and not very healthy. The breakfasts used to be healthy. It is terrible to see a kid so hungry they are asking for third and fourth servings. It’s worse when you see them throwing away all this food or watching a kid taking three orange juices not caring if another student got theirs. It is a very real and very sad situation.
Does the city still provide summer camps? I.e. CEDA?
How does a story about low-income children in an urban location who receive free breakfast and free lunch in school for some years now miss out on the fact of how that value is provided? Our City Operating budget shows for some years now the school nutrition program funded mostly from Federal Breakfast and Lunch programs from the US Dept of Agriculture passed through the State of CT Dept of Education. For year ended the Federal government is credited with $13,857,350 provided to Bridgeport students according to the external audit.
The current year of 2015 shows a slight amount over $14 Million and the similar amount for 2016. Of that amount $4.9 Million pays for personnel and almost $3.2 Million additional for Fringe benefits of which the largest share of $1.8 Million goes to pay the City share of health insurance for the food service workers. It appears the budget for foodstuffs is about $4.7 Million with the balance of the budgets for a variety of operating expenses and services.
In addition to the school breakfast and lunches there is a weekend backpack program with volunteers assisting the CT Food Bank in Bridgeport to provide take-home packs of food for the weekend. And the City BOE site notes the schools that are open in the summer vacation offering breakfast and/or lunches.
The City formed a Food Nutrition Council in recent years. What their observations are on the quality of the meals provided above goes unreported. But there is food available for hungry and growing kids without much hassle. And the BOE also is employing a large number of Bridgeport residents in food service and providing a quality health insurance program also.
No student need go hungry unless the funding is cut or the program workers do not do their jobs for the benefit of the children.
Mr. Dreher, regarding summer camps or other types of summer activities, Lighthouse, the youth services program publishes a pamphlet listing many types of summer activities that are available. Whether there are enough programs, or enough youths able to enroll, is beyond me at this time, though with school out, families are likely to be looking for safe places for their children this summer. How is all this received by City youth? Neighbors peeing in the elevator is bad anytime, anywhere. But some kids deal with a lot worse and too frequently. What to do? Lend a hand? Time will tell.
John,
Interesting financial look at where the federal dollars are spent for this program. Thank you.
Please don’t forget to mention one of the persons who suggested we follow this family and the BEST candidate for mayor: Enrique Torres.
Gotta love a guy who doesn’t support the minimum wage, equal marriage rights, and has said, “we need guns to protect ourselves from a tyrannical government.”
Lest we forget, he ran as a Tea Party Republican in ’10.
He does not support mandatory across-the-board minimum wage, one size does not fit all. He absolutely supports marriage equality, just not forcing the churches to sanction civil unions if is against their beliefs, and yes, he supports gun rights as defined by our federal government. And what do these issues have to do with local government? Seems there are state and federal laws in place to cover all these issues, including Bridgeport. If you are following the changes he has proposed and passed at the local level, clearly he has the taxpayers and low-income residents in each of his proposals. Lest we forget, the original Tea Party was in line with the libertarian belief of less federal government and more states’ rights.
At least he is honest. Not to mention smart, self-made, never been in jail, doesn’t get into bar fights, doesn’t sell his soul for his “party,” he’s a MINORITY, and he’s fearless.
I need a gun to protect myself, too.
His croissants are great, not his politics. “Success in life depends more on where you are born geographically than does your genetic predisposition to competence. Bridgeport’s East Side vs Westport? Westport wins.” I’m from the East Side. I’m competent.
ricktorres2010.blogspot.com
It’s great he wants to be the face of the Black Struggle, with his tattoo and all. But one fact remains, I see zero ethnic diversity in the Black Rock Cafeteria, Harborview Market.
If he really cared he would be more like Cory Booker and move to be with the people he really cares about.
Have you looked at the staff he hires and ask them where they live? He cannot control those who walk into his business, but he does have a very diverse workforce in his employ. Perhaps if Black Rock had a more diverse population.
Perhaps if Black Rock were more inviting, instead of people freaking out every time an inner-city kid rides down Grovers on a pink bike.
Frank the C.B.,
You’re pretty on the mark here! Sad, funny and true!
And ironically, it was teens from Fairfield who were the culprits behind a rash of garage burglaries last year.
Frank the Cabana Boy,
No cookie for you!!!
Jennifer, you are welcome! 🙂
No soup for me 🙁
I don’t like Rick’s Kool-Aid. Maybe Ganim’s pruno will do the trick. 😉
P.s. Cory Booker is the man to watch. I could see him as a potential candidate down the road for thesecond spot in a Presidential election. Oh wait, he is gay, let’s get real. But hey if Alexander the Great had the audacity to control a huge portion of the world, why not!
Gracias, amigo.
Welllll, seeing as Rick is a successful product of public “safety nets,” has lived in “public housing,” has brown skin and speaks fluent Spanish, has built a business from scratch, is fighting the corrupt city against tax liens on the poor, I mean, maybe (though I don’t know, wink, wink) he knows a bit more about this than you do, FtCB?