Thanks to Kelly Kocella, Karen Franklin, Jackie and Quinton Herzstein, Jimmy Acevas, Margaret Chesler, Laura Yanow, Elizabeth Arias, Della Davis, Wendy Chisholm, Kathie Smith, Ms. Ruby Bell, Mrs. Chen, and all the volunteers and staff who helped make our Octoberfest fun for all! Students enjoyed playing games, winning prizes and showing off their costumes in the costume parade. Even the threat of rain didn’t dampen our day. Thanks to Karen Franklin for photos
Thanks to everyone who bought gifts, candy and magazine subscriptions from the Gift Catalogue last month. Sunnyside raised $4,000 for our arts programs. If you didn’t get a chance to order from the catalogue, you can order online at www.qsp.com and use our account # 710-310506.
Thanks to all of the teachers and students who came by to visit rooms 105 and 106 for Ability Awareness Day. Every student got to visit our special education rooms, meet all of the students in the classes to find out what they do at school and what makes them special. K-2nd enjoyed a slide show during their visit and 3rd-5th got to sign up to be in the buddy program this year. We want all students to know that they are important and belong here in the Sunnyside community. Thanks also to the parents who took the time to talk to their children about their experiences on Ability Awareness Day. Next semester, we are hosting a Fun Ability Awareness Games Day on the schoolyard where all students play games that challenge their abilities.
Friday, Oct. 31 is October-fest, Sunnyside School’s annual fall festival. We’ve had terrific response to our sign-up sheets, however we still need help running games booths in the afternoon on the day of the event. If you have an hour to spare on Friday, come and play a game with the kids at school. Feel free to just show up or contact Kelly Kocella and tell her you want to help.
Would you like to join an exciting project to create an “outdoor classroom” for our kids? (Green thumb not necessary.) The garden committee has met twice now to discuss ideas and options for creating a learning garden at Sunnyside. We are a motivated group of parents and teachers, and we invite you to join us in any or all phases of planning, constructing, and maintaining Sunnyside’s future garden.
What can you do to support the garden initiative?
1. volunteer, big or small: you can take on a key position or take on a simple task. We’ll be posting lots of tasks that can be completed easily and quickly for parents who want to help but don’t have a lot of time to invest.
2. register and attend “how to” school garden workshops October 11 at the Green Schoolyard Alliance Fall Conference: www.sfgreenschools. org.
3. make a donation to pay for a teacher to attend the conference
4. let us know if you have special skills to contribute: carpentry, horticulture, construction, grantwriting, etc.
Call or email for more information or to share your ideas. Thank you!
First, a HUGE thank you to Reva for getting our first grant proposal out to Lowe’s! Crossing fingers.
And thank you to Sam Tonroy for drafting a plan for a garden box “prototype.” We have presented it to Ms. Schlenke. She confirmed that we could use the space along the fence for the first boxes and has gotten approval from the School District for us to take out the benches.
We are aiming to have a prototype garden bed built and ready for planting by Thanksgiving. We will use the $1K PTA seed money to do this along with lots of volunteer labor! Thank you PTA! Dates to be determined but we’re thinking early November.
-Sheila
The best source for all the latest information on school food in the SFUSD (and beyond) is at www.sfusdfood. org . Two of the most popular documents at that website, `Why can’t we have better food in our schools?” and “A Short History of Food in the SFUSD” have both been updated to reflect the most current information. Both documents are also being translated into Spanish and Chinese so that soon they will be available to more people.
For those who don’t have the time or patience to read through these documents just to learn what’s new, here are the latest updates.
First, the good news:
- Student Nutrition Services (SNS) piloted a hot breakfast in 10 elementary schools in the spring of 2008, with a goal of getting more students to eat breakfast. SNS does not recoup the costs of providing breakfast at a school unless at least 60 students participate. Overall, nearly three times as many students ate the hot breakfast, as compared with the previous number eating cold cereal, and some schools increased their participation by 400-500%. As a result, the hot breakfast will be expanded to all of the elementary breakfast programs this year; cold cereal will still be available for those students who prefer it.
-Elementary schools like Sunnyside which do not have salad bars will begin offering a wider variety of raw vegetables served with lunch, not just the baby carrots of previous years.
-Brown rice and whole wheat pasta will be appearing on the menu monthly.
-All cafeteria meals are now have 0 grams of trans fat.
–More students ate school lunch last year than in 2006-07, despite the fact that district enrollment declined. Participation increased 2.1% even as enrollment drop by .7%
Now, sadly, the bad news:
-The cost of providing school meals is increasing at a rate which is devastating to the meal program. The price SNS will pay for a meal at an elementary school without a salad bar in 08-09 has increased 30% just since last year – and that does not include increases for the price of the milk which must be served with every meal. At the middle and high school level, between 2004-05 and 2007-08, the prices of the 60 most commonly used items in the preparation of food for the a la carte lines increased between 40-101%. Delivery costs are up 42% from last year due to rising fuel costs.
-Meanwhile, the federal reimbursement for meals served to students qualified for free lunches has increased only 4% since 07-08, and the state reimbursement has dropped 13.6% since last year. The amount of the contribution the City makes to support the salad bars has also dropped 54.5% from 2007-08 to 2008-09.
-Due to the skyrocketing costs of food, fuel, and labor, meal prices for those students who don’t qualify for free or reduced price meals will be increasing to $1.50 for breakfast at all schools (previously this was $1), while lunch prices will be $2.50 at middle school and $3 at high school (both previously $2). Elementary school lunch price remains unchanged at $2.
-These price increases are not unique to San Francisco. Visit http://www.pasasf. org/cna/prices. html to see how districts all around the country are raising meal prices, and http://tinyurl. com/5dx6o2 to hear what witnesses recently told the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Labor and Education about the impact of rising prices on federal child nutrition programs (especially recommended is the testimony of Katie Wilson of the School Nutrition Association. )
-If you think it is time the federal government started funding our school meal programs at a higher level so that our kids can be served the kind of high quality food they deserve, please visit http://www.pasasf. org/cna/index. html to see a quick and easy way to help.