Public school runs candy sale. Profits go to sellers' school lunch accounts.

[Bozita]

http://www.pressandguide.com/stories/012509/loc_20090125006.shtml

Pardee candy sale to help students pay for lunch

D7 school seeing increase in kids running 'a tab' with lunch lady

By Katie Hetrick, Press & Guide Newspapers

PUBLISHED: January 25, 2009

DEARBORN HEIGHTS - Call it a sign of troubled times, but Pardee Elementary School is offering families a chance to pay for student lunches by selling candy bars.

Thirty-two boxes of candy have gone home with students. Each box a student sells will put $24 into the child's school lunch account, said Pardee's Administrative Assistant Nancy Jordan.

Candy sale fundraisers are common, but the money usually goes to the school or a group like the PTO for the general benefit of students. The funds raised by this sale go specifically to buy food for that student.

Jordan thought up the idea of an individual fundraiser. Each week, she gets a list from the District 7 offices about which students owe for lunches and she tries to contact the parents. This year, the list just kept growing.

"More than half of our kids who pay for lunches owe money," Jordan said.

At last count, that meant 86 students owed for lunches.

Less than half of Pardee's students pay the full $1.80 for a student lunch.

Of the 377 students at Pardee, 153 qualify for free lunches and another 55 receive lunch at a reduced rate under the longstanding U.S. Department of Agriculture school lunch program.

But many of the delinquent parents told Jordan they earn too much to qualify for a free or reduced lunch.

more...

[crikkett]

1. Not right at all. Just say NO to exploiting children.

:mad:

And another thing: CANDY???? How is this promoting good health???

:mad: :mad: :mad:

And ANOTHER thing: Why the hell tempt a hungry child by putting a box of freaking CANDY BARS in their hands???? This is SUCH bad news ALL AROUND because it's going to lead to disaster.

The more I think about this the more pissed off I get.

[Montauk6]

15. I'm HIP!

Next thing you know they'll winkingly look the other way while encouraging them to sell weed.

[htuttle]

2. "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

[OffWithTheirHeads]

6. Yeah! At least in prison they feed you.

[Donnachaidh]

3. How much money is made off an entire box?

This doesn't give a breakdown on how much candy is sold, how much total profit per box, and who gets the rest. I wonder if the lunch lady isn't pocketing some on the side too, as the *middleman*.

And yes, I'm a cynic. Many of these *fundraiser* programs exploit the kids for a pittance, while someone else makes profits for nothing.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. What they tried to do in our district was worse

They wanted us to sell candy and junk to THE KIDS at lunch to help pay for the lunch program. So the kids are poor enough to be getting a lunch for free yet they expected them to bring money anyway and buy candy. Every day.

The teachers at my school revolted and refused to participate. So the district backed down. But I think they are doing this in some of our schools.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

12. My husband and I

put a stop to that here. The idiots who ran the PTO decided to set up a giant candy shack right at the entrance/exit of the school - It caused a scene every day and the poor kids, with no money would ask me and my husband to buy them the crap that all of the kids wanted. I ended up buying kids crap when I would never buy them the same crap any place else.
They also set up donut sales in the morning so they got us coming and going. The PTO bunch became insane and we almost had to get a restraining order against one Mom who threatened me with her massive, gas guzzler SUV -

The teachers came to me and my husband because they didn't want to fight the vicious PTO - They, the teachers know we are the pitbulls who don't back down... It got very hairy and scary for a while - I had to keep my kids from school for a week due to the insanity. They screamed at my husband from their cars - (Husband wears a suit to work and for some reason, they found this to be worthy of abuse????) We never got into any verbal battles with these women and a couple of their husbands - We simply got their BS crap shacks shut down.

Oy vey. :eyes:

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. I really don't mind that we don't have a PTA at my school

My friends who teach in schools with PTAs (mainly in suburban districts here) call them the 'helicopter parents' because they hover. :)

[Warpy]

5. My dad sold candy, ice cream, and anything else he thought

factory workers would buy during their lunch hours during the Depression. He was hustling for movie money instead of lunch money, though, since my grandmother fed him at home every day.

I have the diary he kept in 1931.

Selling door to door can be a little dangerous for kids. I just hope this mess is over soon, that we decide a gilded class and their entitlement to empire isn't worth it and start taking care of our own.

[msongs]

7. you would be appalled at how schoolkids are being prostituted by for-profit companies AND

how school boards/districts/administrators are encouraging this.

BTW more than half of school lunches, free or paid, goes directly into the trash uneaten/touched by kids.

then there is the whole welfare-for-dairy-farmers scam.


Msongs

[femmocrat]

8. That is true about the waste.

I have both breakfast and lunch duty every day (elementary). If the kids take a carton of milk or juice and do not open it, it still goes into the trash. They throw away whole apples, oranges and bananas, untouched.

One of the dumbest things I see is selling of "snacks" during the lunches. If they finish most of their lunches, they can buy a small bag of corn chips, pretzels, or ice cream. Why do they need this? The school lunch is already full of sodium and fat!

[FLyellowdog]

9. I questioned this reality once...

the official word is that if the food was distributed, then it's "used" and cannot be reused. What a waste. At our school, kids weren't even given the choice of not accepting what they didn't want to eat. They HAD to have it put on their trays (some kind fo government rule). Why doesn't common sense kick in anywhere? :shrug:

[Odin2005]

11. Health regulations.

I work in the kitchen of A preschool and you would be shocked at the perfectly good food we have to throw because of needlessly anal health regulations that I swear are intentionally designed to waste food. It's totally pisses me off.

[Thothmes]

13. May be that is because the parents do not want to pay

the taxes necessary to cover the cost of these programs.

[FLyellowdog]

10. I would suggest...

giving the money one would use to purchase the candy directly to the school lunch program...no middle man; no children being pimped as sellers; no encouraging poor eating habits via candy.

I guess that's too simple a solution. :hide:

[Thothmes]

14. Why not just tax to cover the cost of the program

No middle man, no children being pimped as sellers, no encouraging poor eating habits via candy

[FLyellowdog]

18. I don't think people would vote for increasing their taxes

here in FL. We have a lot of selling going on for the schools but instead of buying from my grandchildren, I write a check to the schools in the same amount I'd spend purchasing the items. That way the schools get all of the money, not just a portion. It works for me.

[Lisa0825]

16. Question... since these are kids who are PAYING for lunch, not free lunch program kids...

How much do the lunches cost, and would it be more economical for the parents to start packing lunches? I almost always brought my lunch to school. 25 or so years ago, when I was in 8th or 9th grade, my lunch cost (on the rare occasions I would buy one) about $2. Is that $1.80 figure accurate? I was figuring it would have doubled since then.

[SoCalDem]

17. This "selling stuff" is total BULLSHIT..

What happens is that the kids EAT the candy, or collect the wrong amount, or have their "candy money" stolen, and then the poor family is just owing yet another "bill"..

and the candy is nothing special..it's candy you can buy in any vending machine, or in bulk at Costco..


This is just another scheme ..If kids don't have lunch money, why not give them an apple and a cheese stick, and bill the USDA :)

Turning them into candy-schlepping zombies is not the solution:grr: