At the April 23rd Finance Committee we were treated to one of S'Cool Board Member Caren Diedrich's occasional journeys into the bizarre. Food Service Manager Rene Slotten-Beauchamp was presenting her annual budget and lunch price report. Any questions, the committee was asked. Caren had a comment.Concerned about kids wasting food, Diedrich requested that Ms. Slotten-Beauchamp stand by the garbage bins for 6 weeks and let Diedrich know how much food is being wasted.
Really, Caren?
You want a *professional* administrator to hang out by the garbage bins and count wasted food?
Really?
What's next...assigning "TP Police" to hand out a finite number of bath tissue squares to those choosing to use the restroom?
Horizon and Creekside elementary schools are roughly 50% larger than Eastside Elementary and have the same "capacities", yet you're concerned about kids throwing away apples?
"It just slays me."
---Caren Diedrich commenting on wasted food during school lunches
Look...we get it...we are a nation of food wasters. But there is not a damn thing you or anyone can do about it! As Mary Ellen would say, "It is what it is". Like a mind, it's a terrible thing to waste food. But that's a society and parental failure...not the school district.
We appreciate your passion, but find it to be sorely mis-placed....not to mention offensive to even remotely suggest that Ms. Slotten-Beauchamp should be dumpster diving to count food. To her credit, Ms. Slotten-Beauchamp remained un-flustered and proceeded to explain to Ms. Diedrich that these are Federal rules, and next year schools will be required to serve one piece of fruit at every meal....and it can't be just apples, either. This will only create more waste, we fear, but we have larger windmills to slay. We have an ongoing achievement gap problem, and we aren't faring too well on the standardized tests. In fact, it would seem that our only hope is that when the standards change in 2014, they'll finally ask our kids the stuff they DO know.
Can we get crazy back on the bus?
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