The tradition started 29 years ago, when Garden Grove teacher Ellen McLeod had her special-education students whip up a modest Thanksgiving meal. But the festivities at Bell Intermediate School  have grown every year, and on Friday, her 28 students outdid themselves.
Under McLeod's supervision, they roasted 15 turkeys and 80 pounds of yams, mashed 100 pounds of red potatoes, cooked 60 pounds of green beans and prepared all the other traditional sides. They decorated the multi-purpose room, sent out invitations and served as hosts and hostesses for the special meal.
The nearly 300 students, teachers and family members lucky enough to snag invites to the feast were very thankful.
-- Seema Mehta
Photo Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times
The state's education chief, Jack O’Connell, has invited California schools to apply for $2.1 million in federal funding for the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program.
“We know that hungry children don’t learn as well as well-nourished children,” O’Connell said in a statement. “In light of the current economic downturn, higher food prices and continued concern regarding childhood obesity, I am heartened to announce that additional federal funding is available to help schools find innovative ways to offer fresh fruits and vegetables to students for free at school, even right in their classrooms."
In July, O’Connell announced that 25 grantees were awarded $184,100 for the program. The additional $2 million comes from the federal 2008 Farm Bill, which established the program at some schools in all 50 states, with the funding growing over the next 10 years.
Eligible applicants for this round of funding include elementary schools with high proportions of students eligible for free and reduced-price meals. The program is intended to provide all the children in participating schools with a variety of free fresh fruit or vegetable snacks.
The program is already underway in some schools, including two in Santa Monica.
-- Mary MacVean
An olive harvesting festival, open to the public, takes place Friday at Caltech, according to Greenspace, The Times' environment blog. And you can read more about the olive harvest last fall in a story by The Times' Larry Gordon.
-- Mary MacVean
Students at Will Rogers Learning Community, an elementary school in Santa Monica, are taking part in a federal program that provides fresh fruit or vegetable snacks twice a week.
(Students at an event to show off the snack program.)
Here are some excerpts of some letters they've written about the program:
From Tyler: "I love the new snack program. The fruits are great."
From Aliyah: "Do you have a favorite vegetable? I do. Mine is mango. Anyway, I just wanted to say how us having fruits and veggies at school changed me. ... Ever since I told my mom that we have fruits and veggies at school, she said, 'Since you're eating healthy food at school then we should start eating healthy at home. Now instead of bringing chips to school I bring grapes and all kinds of fruits and vegetables."
From Tiffany: "My favorite fruit was the green plum. It tasted sweet and sour. That's what I like."
From Anaya: "The pears are good, too, and I ate two very fast."
From Vladimir: "One time I brought those green plums home. Then my mom tried it and now our refrigerator is filled with them."
-- Mary MacVean
Photo credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times
Adam Thursby, a freshman at UC Riverside, writes:
One of the things about college I was not looking forward to was the cafeteria food. My mom is a wonderful cook, and I’m a fairly picky eater. Those two did not bode well for my attempt to live off dorm food.
But after five weeks, I’m happy to report that I’m somewhere between thriving and surviving.
There certainly have been some times when the food has been terrible -- especially my first week in Riverside. By Wednesday of that week I was sure I would die of starvation by midterms. That obviously hasn’t happened (midterms were last week), but there have been some meals that have sent me running back to my room for a Cup O' Noodles.
One of the highlights, or lowlights, depending on how you look at it, has been the Cuban Beef, which is a few slabs of some unidentifiable meat with about a quarter pound of salsa dumped on top. Underdone, flavorless corned beef has also made a couple of appearances. By far the best, or worst, depending on how you look at it, was Ropa Vieja, a Cuban beef dish. I can’t actually tell you what it was, since I didn’t actually eat it. I didn’t learn much in my three years of high school Spanish, but I did manage to pick up the meaning of ropa vieja: old clothes. Yummy.
The folks at the USC School of Dentistry may not have quite the spirit of gorging and greed that fuels Halloween. But you have to give them some credit for trying: Experts there are offering advice for countering the damage a big pillowcase full of candy might do.
(This meercat at the San Francisco Zoo doesn't seem to be looking for candy, but we could be wrong.)
Julie Jenks, a pediatric dentist and assistant professor at the school, recommends that parents control access to the candy stash so that kids are not constantly munching and thus constantly exposing their teeth to acid.
“When sugar sticks to teeth, the caries bacteria eat it and produce acid, which can wear away the teeth,” she said. “It’s important to limit the amount of time that the acid spends on teeth.”
The best time for treats -- sweets as well as crackers or chips -- is at mealtime, and kids should brush right afterward as well as floss at least once a day. (No easy feat in many homes.)
And if parents have any influence over the kinds of candy, the experts say try to avoid sticky candy such as fruit rolls, gummies or taffy, and things such as lollipops, jawbreakers and anything that stays in your mouth for long periods.
"For those who are worried, a safer treat would be something like plain chocolate, which isn’t too gooey or sticky, isn’t too hard and can be easily cleaned away with brushing and flossing,” Jenks said.
She also recommends treats sweetened with xylitol or stickers, temporary tattoos or art supplies.
-- Mary MacVean
Photo credit: Associated Press
U.S. Rep. George Miller of California, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, issued a statement on Wednesday in honor of National School Lunch Week.
The Child Nutrition and National School Lunch Acts are up for reauthorization next year.
Miller said, in part:
"Unfortunately, the current economic crisis has placed tremendous pressure on both families and schools. Parents are finding it harder to put meals on their tables and are relying more heavily on school meal programs to help feed their kids. At the same time, schools are being forced to cut costs while still striving to offer healthy meals that kids will choose to eat.
“... School meal programs are on the frontlines of our nation’s childhood obesity battle -– and have an enormous influence as children are developing life-long eating habits. Especially in light of the growing fiscal challenges we face, we must do everything we can to help schools find creative ways to continue providing low-cost, healthy meals for children. Providing children with access to nutritious foods while at childcare, school, or summer camp is vital to our efforts to help all children learn, succeed and thrive –- and for improving the health of all Americans.”
-- Mary MacVean
You might wonder why we have a week to celebrate some of the most criticized food around -- school lunches. But even the president has issued a proclamation to mark National School Lunch Week. Which is this week, through Saturday.
The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program that since 1946 has served more than 187 billion lunches. Anyone want to hazard a guess about how much mystery meat that might include? These days there are plenty of regulations about fat, salt and other contents of school meals.
In my own childhood, there were "lunch ladies" who made tuna salad or meatloaf or sloppy Joes. Never did we get anything like "Petunia Pita Pocket" thwapped onto our plastic trays.
But the School Nutrition Assn. is holding an election with her as well as Pete Pizza, Biff Burger, Gloria Grilled Cheese and Larry Lasagna in the running. Pete -- he of the wholegrain crust and lowfat cheese -- is ahead; the winner is to be announced Oct. 24.
The idea is to promote healthy habits. And some school districts and legislatures are stepping in to try to make school food healthier. But that effort often collides with budget restrictions. There are other problems, too, writes Jacqueline Domac, who has been a teacher and school food activist.
-- Mary MacVean
Photo by Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times
Around high schools you can see students with cans of Red Bull or Monster or other "energy" drinks. Ask them, and they'll sometimes say the drinks help them through the day. Ambitious teenagers are up late and up early, getting too little sleep and feeling under pressure to do well at everything.
As a parent of a teenager, I wonder how much of these drinks young people should consume. Apparently, I'm not alone. Jill U. Adams talks to drug experts about the buzz from energy drinks. Read her story.
-- Mary MacVean
Photo: Eric Boyd / Los Angeles Times
Many parents take a big gulp and hope for the best when their 16-year-olds start driving. But an industry group suggests the best course may be forcing teens to wait a bit more before driving.
An Insurance Institute for Highway Safety report being released today says a higher driving age would reduce crashes involving teenage drivers.
The Institute says legislation was introduced in Delaware, Florida and Georgia and Massachusetts to raise the minimum age to get a driver's license. But all the bills failed.
Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group funded by the auto insurance industry, acknowledged the idea is "a tough sell."
"The bottom line is that when we look at the research, raising the driving age saves lives," Lund told the Associated Press. Lund was presenting his report today at the annual conference of the Governors Highway Safety Association in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Teen drivers have the highest risk of any age group, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the insurance institute. For 16-year-old drivers, the crash rate per mile driven is almost 10 times the rate for drivers ages 30 to 59. More than 5,000 teenagers die in car crashes each year.
The report comes on the heels of a proposal by some college presidents to consider lowering the drinking age to 18.
-- Mary MacVean
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have grown every year, and on Friday, her 28 students outdid themselves.
Jimmy Biblarz
Lance Chapman
Sophy Cohen
Antero Garcia
Nick Giulioni
Steven Hicks
Anum Khan
Lauren McCabe
Tim Schlosser
Erin Shachory
Phoebe Smolin