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WOW!!! I just came in here to see if I had to make any changes or updates
and realized that the last time I did was 4 months ago! Summer fairly FLEW
by!! That's how it always is I guess. But....that means that my favorite
time of year is upon us...Fall!! I love fall, the excitement of starting a
new school year, football games, tailgating, bonfires with friends. There
always seems to be so much going on and never enough hours in the day to do
it all! That's how it is for some of my projects here too. The most
important project for me right now is finishing up the nutrient analysis of
my menus. As you might guess it is a huge undertaking to enter all of that
data and put it all together in an efficient format so that everyone can
understand and benefit from it.
All of this is just a long way of saying "It aint done yet". But it is just
about there and as soon as it is I will put it on this site as well as on
the menus that go home.
In the mean time I do have an entire book of nutrition and ingredient
sheets for every single food item that we use. I know that there are some
parents and students out there who have an interest in this. If you are
interested in this, please call my office.
Check back to this announcements page periodically for updates and special
announcements!
Check out the forms section for lots of useful info, such as downloadable
free and reduced forms, recipe lists, price lists, allergy alert/dollar
limit for extras forms, and any other pertinent stuff I might add.
The links tab features great interactive games, weight loss tools and cool
web pages geared toward ages 4 through 90!
A Word...or so...on VALUE:
I would like to address a question of value: Our lunch prices are right in
line and even a little bit lower when compared to other Mahoning Valley
schools. one of the reasons that we participate in the National School
Lunch Program is that we are able to bring value as well as quality to the
table when our students take advantage of the "Type A" Lunch that we offer
as a meal each day:
A Type "A" Lunch consists of:
1 Bread or Grain (IE: Hamburg bun, 2 slices bread, rice, pasta...you get the
picture)
2 oz. Meat or Cheese or alternate(Meat, Cheese, Nut Butters (which we do not
serve), yogurt...etc.)
3/4 cup of any combination of 2 fruit or vegetable (Fries...which I object
to using as a vegetable, but the USDA does not....such is the power of the
potato lobbyists), beans, salad, greens, Mashed Potatoes (Also should not be
counted as a vegetable but as a bread....but who am I to complain?),
Carrots,Celery, peaches, apples, pears, pineapple, watermelon...now you're
catchin on!)
8 oz Milk (I only buy 1% milk and it is available in white, chocolate and
strawberry).
Now you know what makes up a school lunch. When a student takes at least
three of these items (the 3/4 cup fruit/vegetable counts as two items) in
combination, we are able to "claim" that lunch for additional reimbursement
(currently only .23) from the Federal Government. We also receive .18 in
USDA food credit for every Type "A" lunch we serve.
This little bit of money helps us to operate efficiently and also assures
you that we are being constantly monitered to provide nutritious meals that
meet the US Guidelines for Americans.
Why am I going on and on about this? Because many of our students do not
take advantage of the lunch and they buy everything Ala Carte or, in
English, by itself. This costs you more and provides less balance. I
would like to encourage you all to encourage the students to buy their
Lunches as a "meal" rather than ala carte. This will help your pocketbook,
their nutrition, and our programs success!
Thanks, and please feel free to call 330-757-7034, or email me at:
pola_dmc@access-k12.org (or use the link at the top of this page) with any
questions or suggestions!
Donna Cartwright
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