Sampler Platter 08.31.09

Lunch cards go electronic (4.00 / 2)

This sounds to me like a very good idea. As a technophile I like the idea of being able to check balances, add funds and see what my kids are eating online (and to make sure they don't spend their lunch money on books, like my granddaughter occasionally does). But I also remember hearing a story on the radio about how it's often difficult to get families to sign up for free lunch programs because kids are stigmatized by them -- they don't want to be seen as "poor." This neatly sidesteps that problem.

I have succumbed to the Twitter craze. @Omir55

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by: Omir the Storyteller @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 19:38:12 PM UTC

Yeah... (4.00 / 2)

I'm gonna try to find numbers on free / reduced-price lunch participation in Orange, but I know offhand that it's one of the poorest cities in the state, in one of the poorest areas (Newark / Irvington / The Oranges).  Also mentioned in the article are two other adjacent Essex County municipalities that already use the program - Maplewood and South Orange, which are both pretty much half poverty and half wealth with not much in between.  

It would be great to see many 'wealthier' suburban districts also adopt such systems (unless they already do?  I honestly don't know anymore), as they could almost certainly gain a much higher participation rate in free / reduced-price lunch programs due to the removal of that stigma you mention.

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 19:52:29 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

OMG (4.00 / 2)

A choice of eating or buying a book?

I would have to be literally starving to buy food given a dichotomy like that...

I mean, you can always scavenge enough pennies to buy a packet of ramen noodles, but books are forever.

If your granddaughter is spending her lunch money on books, then she is just like me and probably you should focus more on making sure she has enough books to read every week so she doesn't get bored plus, maybe, make her brown-bag her lunch.

Just a thought.  

If it's a book I really really want to read, I don't care about food.  I would rather dumpster-dive than forego a great book (well, ok, that's hyperbole, but you get the idea).

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

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by: Youffraita @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 19:57:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

You're making me remember the 1 day a month (4.00 / 3)

the Scholastic Book Club orders came in. My family could never afford to buy me books, but I would always look at the catalog and dream...

I was on free lunch; if I'd been given money I probably would have spent it on books, too!

I wish I knew half what the flock of them know
Of where all the berries and other things grow,
Cranberries in bogs and raspberries on top
Of the boulder-strewn mountain, and when they will crop.
--"Blueberries" by Robert Frost

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by: wide eyed lib @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 20:02:52 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Oh, I WAS lucky... (4.00 / 2)

My mother was a teacher back in the day when one-income families were the norm, so we had a tiny bit of extra cash...and until I hit junior high or maybe high school, I was encouraged to read.  (After that, it was put that book down!, heh.)

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

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by: Youffraita @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 22:08:52 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Desiderius Erasmus... (4.00 / 2)

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes."

:)

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 20:10:26 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

It's a bit more complicated than that (4.00 / 2)

I don't mind her buying books. In fact her grandmother and I will often give her money to buy books when they have book fairs. Even if a lot of them are manga (a Japanese style graphic novel, with cartoon pictures telling much of the story), at least she's reading something.

What I object to is her using lunch money to buy books. I figure she needs the lunch.

Money is tight at the moment (file that one under "well, duh") so we are encouraging her to get her manga fix at the library. All of us have library cards and all of us make extensive use of them.

When Erasmus said "When I have money I buy books, and if there's any left over I buy food and clothing" he wasn't a 12-year-old girl who is still growing.

I have succumbed to the Twitter craze. @Omir55

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by: Omir the Storyteller @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 20:59:38 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Oh, Omir, I DO understand (4.00 / 2)

...and yes, she probably needs the food.

But a bookworm will not be denied their "fix" even at the expense of a meal.

Look: I am not criticizing you in any way, shape, or form.  I am merely speaking as someone who, even at that age, would have skipped a meal (or three) to have new books.

To own new books...the library is great, but it just isn't the same as having the books at home where you can reread them as often as you wish.

Perhaps I'm not articulating this very well...I just know that, if it's a book, or if it's food, a good book will win over food every time.  I can always find 33 cents for a packet of ramen.

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

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by: Youffraita @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 22:15:30 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Don't they have library day at school? (4.00 / 3)

I got busted around 12yo by my mom for faking illness after our class library runs, so I could go home and just read {grin} We went either once a week or every other. I always grabbed a stack. I don't recall buying a lot of books, but I sure read a lot of books. Started very young. My dad busted me when I was 5-6ish with a stack of books under my covers when I was supposed to be sleeping . . . I used to crawl into the window nook and read by streetlight . . .  

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by: nycstray @ Tue Sep 01, 2009 at 01:48:39 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Sure they do (4.00 / 2)

We also have our own library day once a week at the local branch of the King County Regional Library.

But that doesn't stop her from wanting to buy the occasional book, especially if it's a manga series she collects.

I have succumbed to the Twitter craze. @Omir55

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by: Omir the Storyteller @ Tue Sep 01, 2009 at 04:35:07 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

In my school (4.00 / 3)

kids on the free lunches are about 80%. Turned out my daughter didn't fit in because she was bringing her lunch or paying cash. Sigh.

But, they would give her a lunch (or breakfast) and then I was presented with a bill a month later. Quite to my surprise.

I finally realized, that even though they say "no charging", that actually, they do, and they're happiest if I send a check for $30 or so every month and just let her run down the balance.

As it was, he did a deal with a blancmange, and the blancmange ate his wife.

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by: elfling @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 22:32:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Last year, if my granddaughter forgot her lunch money (4.00 / 2)

or it otherwise evaporated, she could go two meals in the hole. After that they'd send a note home; the third time the school would call us up and remind us politely that she owed for three days worth of lunches, and had hit her credit limit. :)

We sent a check for $25 every other week to pay for her lunches, but would occasionally get behind due to holidays, Grandpa's Swiss cheese memory, etc.

That was in elementary school. I have no idea what it'll cost to feed her this year now that she's in junior high, but I bet it'll be more than that.

I have succumbed to the Twitter craze. @Omir55

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by: Omir the Storyteller @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 23:20:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Hi, Jay! (waves) (4.00 / 2)

This is an open thread; and this website seems the most appropriate one to post what I read earlier (w/linkie & all).

A dozen Amish and Old Order Mennonites, mostly girls, squeeze into a shoulder-to-shoulder circle inside a barn near Farmersville, their bare feet and sneakers buried in ankle-high onion skins as they hand-sort the produce.

Behind them, two young boys, their faces grimy with sweat and dust, assemble cardboard box after box for the bounty.

It would seem a slice of farm life not drastically unlike any other that has played out on Lancaster County Plain Sect farms for close to 300 years.

But this simple, tedious rite of another season's harvest is part of a savvy, blossoming business strategy here that finds Plain Sect farmers banding together to create two cooperatives that flex their dollar power, even as the economy and milk prices hit rock bottom.

http://articles.lancasteronlin...

That's just the lede.  The story discusses two different Plain cooperatives, and mentions how the Plain People have had to be retrained from thinking "chemicals are best" into creating organic farms.  Which, I must say, was news to me: I have lived in the county, and eau de manure is one of many reasons I prefer the city.

Anyway, I thought this piece of reportage was relevant, interesting, and perfect for this site.  Hope you agree.

Oh: and I used to go through Farmersville on a daily basis.  It's where Lance Armstrong is from, too, the one who was suspended for two years for steroids & who recovered from cancer?  Anyway: Farmersville.

One of the most confusing towns in the county.  It has two main roads: "downtown Farmersville" is basically one intersection.

It is the intersection of Farmersville Road East-West and Farmersville Road North-South.

No, that IS NOT a typo.  Took me weeks of driving those roads to figure out where they went & make my acquaintance with them.

(^.^)

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

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by: Youffraita @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 19:49:04 PM UTC

Great story, thanks! (4.00 / 2)

I added it up top. :)

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 20:05:54 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Amish use chemicals?? (4.00 / 2)

I would figure any group that eschews electricity would be all for planting and harvesting the traditional way. Go figure.

I have succumbed to the Twitter craze. @Omir55

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by: Omir the Storyteller @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 21:03:16 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Oh, yeah... (4.00 / 2)

I didn't realize that myself until a couple years ago or so.  Jill's written on it / mentioned it a few times before...

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 21:19:23 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I see it's mentioned in Wikipedia (4.00 / 2)

I guess the ban on electricity was to help keep the Old Order separate as a community, something that wouldn't factor into decisions on such things as chemical fertilizers and artificial insemination.

I have succumbed to the Twitter craze. @Omir55

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by: Omir the Storyteller @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 21:25:54 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The water equation (4.00 / 3)

Interesting article... but their graphic is misleading.  The graphic compares a single cup of coffee to a single hamburger, OK... to a kilogram of cheese!  That's like 4000 calories' worth of cheddar.  I sent the editors a message that it might be better to use 100g of cheese and so forth in their graphic, so that the comparison's a bit more meaningful.

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by: xjm @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 21:39:02 PM UTC

erm... (4.00 / 2)

now I hang my head in embarrassment...sorta.

I mean, thanks, Jay, for fp'ing that story...& I'm glad I posted it here...but I'm sorta anonymous & like it that way.

gha! (as Ria would say).  B/c I'm terrible at sorting out my feelings & you make me feel both happy & afraid,

If that doesn't make any sense, well, now you know why I hide in my little room a lot & only engage people via the InterToobz.  heh

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

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by: Youffraita @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 22:35:46 PM UTC

Oh, sorry! (4.00 / 2)

Want me to take your name off there, and just leave the link up?

It's a default thing for me, I always give credit when somebody else finds something good...

"The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks." - Christopher Hitchens

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by: JayinPortland @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 22:51:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Nah. It's cool. (4.00 / 1)

Just a bit of a surprise, that's all.

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

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by: Youffraita @ Wed Sep 02, 2009 at 06:11:22 AM UTC

[ Parent ]