More great prizes added today! Here is our prize list as of 5-12-09
Disneyland 4 passes
Six Flags G. America 2 passes
Bonfante Gardens 2 tickets
Aquarium of the Bay 2 passes
California Academy of Sciences 4 passes
Bay Area Discovery Museum 2 passes
Precita Eyes SF Mural tour for 2
Tech Museum Innovation 4 passes
Zeum 3 family passes (3 raffle prizes)
AcroSports 25.00 gift certificate
Atlas Chiropractic 1 Month of Treatment
Bianchi Fitness 3 month boot camp for 2, 60 minute personal training
Mission Cliffs Climbing Gym 2 intro classes and rentals for 2
MyGym 8 week membership
Noe Valley Dance 10 adult dance classes
Noe Valley Dance Beginner Childrens tap dance classes (2 certs-2 prizes)
Pump it Up SF 2 hour birthday party (M-th)
SF Gymnastics 8 classes
Sky High Sports Family pass (4) one hour trampoline
Sol Gym 300.00 Fitness Package
Yerba Buena Ice Skating 4 admissions and skate rentals
Charity Kahn CD and spot in Jamboodas summer camp
Martha Bruce Photography complimentary session 1 8×10 print
Baskin Robbins Ice cream cake certificate
Canyon Market 25.00 gift card
Destinations Bakery 25.00 gift certificate
Molly Stones Tower Mkt gift cert
Quake kit in Frisco 3 day emergency kit/family of 4
Vino Rosso Winebar (2) 25.00 Gift Certificates (2 prizes)
Electronic Arts variety of kids video games (could be several prizes)
Leapfrog Learning Leapster and games
Nvidia 3 video games
Young at Art is a nine day celebration of student artwork in San Francisco at the de Young Museum. Each year, Sunnyside teachers five visual arts submissions to represent the work of Sunnyside students. Come and see the pieces displayed in the museum. www.YoungAtArt.com for more information.
Our Raffle is back! Prizes will be raffled off at Spring Fest, May 30, but you do not need to be present to win.
Sunnyside SpringFest Donors
As of May 3, 2009
Disneyland: 4 passes
Sol Gym: $300 package
Bianchi Fitness: 3 months of bootcamp for you and a friend
Martha Bruce Photography: Free portrait session
Best Little Quake Kit in Frisco: 3-day emergency kit for a family of 4
Aquarium of the Bay: 2 passes
Bonfante Gardens: 2 tickets
Mission Cliffs: 2 introductory classes
SF Gymnastics: 8 classes
Sky High Sports: Family pack for 1 hour of trampoline
Tech Museum of Innovation: Passes
Yerba Buena Ice Skating Rink: 4 tickets and skate rentals
Zeum: 3 family passes
Baskin Robbins: Ice cream cake
Leapfrog Learning: Leapster and games
Nvidia: 3 video games
. . . and more to come!
Sunnyside’s biggest annual community event and fundraiser is Saturday, May 30 from 11am - 2pm. The festivities include a plant sale, games, prizes, entertainment, food and raffle.
The wonderful student art sale and auction will also return to the festival this year. Student artwork from our art programs will be available to buy and class aprons will be auctioned off.
Please plan to attend and invite your friends, family and neighbors to our fun event.
Next Planning Meeting and Volunteer Sign up: Monday, May 11, Library
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Thanks to Sunnyside students for their enthusiasm for the garden!
Thanks to Sunnyside teachers for participating in the seed-germination activities last week and for their interest in the garden. Thanks especially to Kindergarten teacher Leah Plack, a strong supporter of the garden from day 1.
Thanks to Principal Nancy Schlenke for her support of and advocacy for the garden effort.
Thanks to the Green Schoolyard Alliance of SFUSD for its support of our garden effort and donation of 3 planter beds. Thanks to San Francisco ReBuilding Together for the donation of 3 planter beds.
Thanks to Lowe’s of South San Francisco for its generous Toolbox grant to launch our garden.
Thanks to Reva Bhatia for using her grant-writing mojo in the garden effort.
Thanks to Sloat Garden Center for organic seed donations (and to Cathy Meyer for making it happen).
Thanks to Sam Tonroy for designing a planter bench that will serve Sunnyside kids for years to come.
Thanks to Kim Kreis for creating the beautiful wall poster in the school’s entryway and thanks to Greg Chisolm for hanging it so securely.
Thanks to Sanjay of Bayview Green Waste Management for donations of truckloads of warm, sweet-smelling compost/soil that filled our planter boxes (and Sam Tonroy for making it happen).
Thanks to Sam Tonroy, Joe Meyer, and Sean Lynch for building a beautiful, redwood planter-bench prototype, soon to be replicated at our next garden work day, Saturday, March 21.
Thanks to Cathy Meyer for planning, organizing, and executing the seed germination activities in the classrooms.
Thanks to folks who helped assemble the seed-germination kits during the Feb. 21st garden work day: Troy (Wes’ dad), Mike Tzortzes, PTA Prez Kari Gray and her lovely son, and Ellen Cox.
Thanks to parents who volunteered in the classrooms for the seed-germination activities: Cathy Meyer, Eric Westby, Kristie, Julie Tonroy, Kelly Kocella, Karen Franklin, Ellen Cox, Kari Gray, and Wendy Chisholm.
Thanks to teachers Leah Plack and Kit Bell for opening the school up early on Saturday mornings for perhaps overly-enthusiastic parents.
Thanks to Mr. Yee for locking up the school after the Feb. 21st work day.
Thanks to Jenny Isenberg and Amy Nelson for making a cash donation to the garden effort.
Thanks to Jenny Isenberg, Lynda (Wesley’s mom), and Karen Franklin for taking photographs to document the garden effort.
Thanks to Sunnyside PTA for its support and resources.
An enormous thanks to Cathy Meyer, who has given so much of her time, enthusiasm, and ideas to the garden effort with no indication of slowing down anytime soon!
I hope I didn’t forget anyone!
What’s coming next:
Saturday, March 21: Garden Work Day
We will need many hands to build planter benches, create planting kits for students to transplant seedlings into garden plots, do container gardening, and more. Principal Schlenke will be hosting a SFUSD information session for incoming K parents who did not get any of their lottery choices from Round 1, so please come and let Sunnyside shine! More details to come.
Week of March 23: Transplanting Seedlings into Planter Boxes
Volunteers are needed to help teachers and students transplant their seedlings into the garden plots.
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.