APS school lunch update

Good evening.
I thought it might be helpful to give an update on the Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) lunch issue that will take effect on January 5, 2009.
Brad Winter, the COO of APS, has agreed to meet with a Wilson Middle School family, school advocate and three members of the Collaboration on Monday morning. The meeting will provide an opportunity for Brad to give details on the APS decision that will pull students out of the lunch line if their parents owe any money to APS for school lunches. It will also provide APS an opportuntity to hear from a student and family how this new policy will affect students. I am creating an agenda for the meeting this weekend so if you have any thoughts about what should be included in the meeting, I would welcome hearing from you on this Blog.
Thanks so much for your support!
Nancy

Albuquerque Public Schools and school lunch

This week I attended a couple of meetings about a decision that will take effect on January 5, 2009 in all Albuquerque Public Schools. If a family has an account past due for school lunches for their child, the child will be pulled out of the lunch line and given a cold cheese sandwich in a bag. This effects families even owing as little as a $1.00 to APS. Teachers, Principals, food service personnel, families and especially children, are all very opposed to this decision. Can you imagine what it would feel like to be a middle school 6th grader pulled out of line and humiliated in this way? Wilson Middle School has come together to sign a petition to the Superintendent of APS. Over 600 parents and 400 children have signed the petition. They are asking for a "stay" in the decision of January 5 until families and members of this Collaboration have an opportunity to give the facts to school board members.
If you have ideas on how to best advocate for the children in Albuquerque Public Schools, please add your comments to this Blog.
I hope you have a good week!

First blog from Nancy

Hello.

This is the first posting on behalf of the New Mexico Collaboration to End Hunger.

Goal #5 Group had a meeting for three hours this afternoon to continue the discussion of "Creating pervasive awareness of hunger in New Mexico". The group members discussed how to better communicate with all of our Collaboration partners (over 50 currently) and with all of our external audiences. One of the ideas was to create this Blog.
I will use this Blog and a newly developed website for the Collaboration to communicate with you. As always, your ideas, observations and comments are appreciated - especially when it leads to accomplishing our goal to end hunger in New Mexico.

Thank you.

Nancy

Click here to visit our website. (This is just in the beginning stages and is being worked on as I write this Blog - go Cathy!)