Monday, December 29, 2008

Our tax money pays schools to promote milk

Schools sell out our children for money. Not only does the government pay schools 24 cents for each lunch they sell--made with dirt cheap surplus supplied at a very reduced rate--they also receive 18 cents for each milk carton they sell in addition to the grant money they receive for participating in the School Lunch Program. This is of course all in addition to the money they collect from children.

Corrupt money-hungry principals do everything they can to get this money in the schools' budgets--only to later, divert these funds to areas other than food--as it secures their inflated salaries. Change? NO WAY!

In simpler terms, the huge profits schools make from lunch sales and grant money do not get put back into the lunch program. And then schools have the nerve to complain--without ever trying--that healthy lunches are too costly. I guess, in their eyes, the children are not worth the possible risk of losing a little money.

As an example, last year Fox River Grove School District 3, in Illinois (a small district with about 500 students) made $80,000 in lunch sales of garbage not fit for human consumption and then received $31,000 in a grant--our tax-payer money--just for participating in our government's efforts to bail-out factory farming at our children's expense.

Schools resist change especially if it means losing a steady income of our tax money, even when a few simple changes will help children live longer healthier lives, in a better world.

Background
Special Milk Program for Children—
Pursuant to section 3 of the Child
Nutrition Act of 1966, (42 U.S.C. 1772),
the Department announces the rate of
reimbursement for a half-pint of milk
served to non-needy children in a
school or institution that participates in
the Special Milk Program for Children.
This rate is adjusted annually to reflect
changes in the Producer Price Index for
Fluid Milk Products, published by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics of the
Department of Labor.

For the period July 1, 2008 through
June 30, 2009, the rate of reimbursement
for a half-pint of milk served to a nonneedy
child in a school or institution
which participates in the Special Milk
Program is 18.25 cents. This reflects an
increase of 7.42 percent in the Producer
Price Index for Fluid Milk Products
from May 2007 to May 2008 (from a
level of 185.9 in May 2007 as previously
published in the Federal Register to
199.7 in May 2008).

As a reminder, schools or institutions
with pricing programs that elect to serve
milk free to eligible children continue to
receive the average cost of a half-pint of
milk (the total cost of all milk purchased
during the claim period divided by the
total number of purchased half-pints)
for each half-pint served to an eligible
child.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Governance/notices/naps/NAPs08-09.pdf

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered” Martin Luther King, Jr.

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2 comments:

  1. Very good point about schools not wanting to invest in healthier (plant based) meals - they make too much money serving the kids the animal stuff and pocketing profits. I feel especially sorry for the many kids that are lactos-intolerant. As I understand schools don't offer "milk" alternatives.

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