26 Philly Schools To Lose Full-Service Kitchens

Philadelphia Inquirer:

Hot, healthy lunches may be a thing of the past for some children as the Philadelphia School District closes kitchens at 26 elementary and middle schools throughout the city to help bridge a $629 million budget gap.

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Comments

[ian0000]

02:57 PM on 07/01/2011

blame the teachers union for this. in january philadelphia teachers are getting BOTH a contract raise and a step raise. yet the people who pay them , the citizens of philadelphia - 87 % of private sector philadelphia workers are making less than they did in 2008 or are unemployed, yet they had their property taxes raised to pay more money for the raises. if the teaches had passed on these raises these lunch closings would never have to have happened.

[ian0000]

03:05 PM on 07/01/2011

i have to give the philly teachers union credit for one thing . they are smart. to cast a wider net and get more rev from the most no of people they specifically lobied for a property tax increase as opposed to a wage tax increase. that way even someone unemployed who pays no local wage tax has to now pay more in taxes as the property tax increase hits all the unemployed also.

[Coffee4Me]

04:41 AM on 08/20/2011

All of the schools in Pa have had their budgets drastically cut by the Gov. at the end of the school year. He made the statement that he wants Pa to be the next Texas. The drillers have moved in and taken over and they have a hand in everything. Schools all around are being offered contracts to allow drilling on school property and some are taking them to help pay for the gutted budgets. The teachers here have taken pay cuts, freezes and layoffs, so using them as an excuse will no longer fly. Cutting nutrition is a surefire way to get the districts to sign drilling contracts, because letting children go hungry is not an option. There is no shame when it comes to big oil.

[trinity]

02:54 PM on 07/01/2011

Taxpayers are still going to pay for it, the money will just go to private companies (go figure) who make crappy food (chucked with preservatives, fat and who knows what else) in little boxes enclosed in plastic wrap... I worked in a poor school in IL for years that had "satellite meals" and I wouldn't feed that garbage to neighbor's dog....it was sad that the pre-packaged mystery meal was the only food a lot of the students got...

[am10]

09:48 AM on 07/02/2011

Why aren't the parents paying for it?

[Mr Hoodoo]

10:03 AM on 07/01/2011

Who cares about some kids and them going hungry?

As long as the Koch brothers and their fellow multi-national corporatfascistrobberbaron elite get their tax breaks and tax holidays, really, that's all that matters.

Some kids going hungry? Send 'em to a New Age Dickensian work house to wokk 12 to 16 hours a day in sweat shop conditions at .10 cents a day and a bowl of gruel FOR the Koch brothers.

[SangZe]

08:53 AM on 07/01/2011

Parents should feed their children, not the State.

[trinity]

02:55 PM on 07/01/2011

Great, so if the parents don't have a job or money for food...make the kids suffer...must be one of those compassionate conservatives....

[am10]

09:49 AM on 07/02/2011

When you're a parent, you find a way. Plus most churches have food banks.

[El Chingaso]

07:12 AM on 07/01/2011

Parents need to feed their offspring, not taxpayers.

[Morena]

02:27 PM on 07/01/2011

My parents have always been tax payers. Yet I never attended public schools_ go figure!

[am10]

10:10 PM on 06/30/2011

While this sort of stinks, it's really not that hard or expensive to make a sandwich.

[chompchomp]

05:22 PM on 06/30/2011

It seems that in the political climate of the early 21st century, I find myself forced to choose between raising a generation of well-fed, healthy, educated children and instead letting them go unfed, receive a poor education, and not have the opportunities my generation had (which are far fewer than my parents') all so another hedge fund manager might purchase yet another yacht or spend another cool mil at Tiffany's. To me, it's no choice at all. What baffles me are those who choose otherwise. Do they have human compassion?

[Mr Hoodoo]

10:05 AM on 07/01/2011

"Conservative compassion" is reserved for the poor downtrodden wealthy top 1% who suffer so for being filthy rich.

[Christopher Hull]

02:50 PM on 06/30/2011

Well no one seems to care about this much. I was one of those poor kids who got a free hot breakfast every morning and a hot lunch. I have said for years that if we were serious about education in this country we would make breakfast, lunch and a healthy after school snack requirements and free.
Just as you can't run a car without fuel, you can't run (or build) a mind without the proper fuel either. You put junk parts (bad food) in you end up with a junk product.
America is a tragedy and nobody seems to care.

[am10]

10:12 PM on 06/30/2011

Free school meals were meant to be a temporary fix to help while parents got back on their feet. They were never meant to be permanent.

[Christopher Hull]

01:24 AM on 07/01/2011

Actually no. Free school meals were established so poor children could get at least two decent meals a day. I was the first in my family to graduate high school, go to college, start my own business, etc. That "temporary fix" gave me the groundwork for a more successful life. Not only should they be permanent we should make good nutrition for all school children the beginning of a new emphasis on education.
From your tone I somehow get the idea that you disagree?

[El Chingaso]

07:10 AM on 07/01/2011

No such thing as "free," Bro. Us taxpayers are the ones getting hammered to pay for these things.

[Christopher Hull]

12:57 PM on 07/01/2011

Really? You think you are getting "hammered" by investing in the best education for kids that we can? Not only should meals, kindergarten, school, college, trade schools, etc be free but they should be of high quality.
You are getting hammered by our broken system only rewarding the robber class. We pay enough in taxes to have the public option, good infrastructure, top of the line education, the whole Progressive wish list. But our taxes are stolen and given to GE, Halliburton, the MIC, etc.