Third in a series
Re “The Learning Component in Free Lunch Program”
[img]1940|left|||no_popup[/img]Nothing subtle about the motivation for Culver City’s first Free Summer Lunch program, which debuts in a little over 72 hours at La Ballona Elementary School.
“We want to be able to guarantee,” says School District Supt. Dave LaRose, “that from the first Monday that school lets out, all the way to Aug. 2, Monday through Friday, kids not only have an opportunity to receive a nutritious meal, but to be actively engaged in learning and growing.”
Under the supervision of Julie Garcia, Director of Food and Nutrition Services, the first meal – to students 18 and under – will be served up Monday from 11:30 to 12:30, with the following 30 minutes reserved for a panoply of mental and physical activities, featuring agencies from all around the community.
In other times, school machinery used to shut down for the summer following the final classes.
There will not be a change of speed this summer. Campuses will look like mid-year.
“What we will be doing is a different model from the regular school year,” says Mr. LaRose, “but this will be a busy place. Not only will this program be going on, we have our own Office of Child Development program but pre-school programs in partnerships with the Star programs – at La Ballona and elsewhere.”
How many meals will be served on Opening Day?
“An interesting question since this is our first time,” Mr. LaRose said.
His expression did not change.
“We are projecting between five and 500,000.
“We really don’t know the range.
“After the first few days, Julie Garcia will be able to tell us what the pattern is, what the trend is.
“Our hope is that La Ballona will be a very, very busy place.”
Returning to motivation for inaugurating the program, Mr. LaRose was asked if he believed that otherwise students will go unfed?
He shot back quickly.
“I don’t just believe it, I know it,” he said. “When you have a population that has a reliability on a free and reduced lunch, and you rely on that for nine months, then go into summer, you know there is going to be a greater dependency elsewhere.
“If you take away that resource, you know there is going to be some type of implication.”
Mr. LaRose said 44 percent of the District’s 6,000-plus student population qualifies for free and reduced lunches.
“At La Ballona,” he said, “it is closer to 65 percent.”
[img]1456|right|Mr. LaRose||no_popup[/img]The idea sprang from Mr. LaRose’s experience at his previous posting in Washington state. “This was one of our best models of what Whole Child/Whole Community looks like,” he said. “Certainly the free lunch addresses one of the most basic needs. But when you look at the development of the Whole Child, here are the keys: They are safe, they are cared for, that they are challenged, that they have opportunities and experiences.
“That is what we are able to do by flooding it with everything from arts to partnering with the library to have a reading incentive program, and soliciting donations of used books, and being able to have a backpack program on Fridays where if people need a food on the weekend, they can take that food home…”
Mr. LaRose, who speaks and 100 miles an hour and thinks at 200 miles an hour, still was going strong. His visitor, however, was wearing down, and so the conversation, regretfully, concluded.
