As kids, we associated back to school with a fresh start -- a new classroom, new teachers, new books and school supplies and maybe even a snazzy new outfit your Mom helped you pick out.

From the opposite end of the spectrum, the 2009 school year holds much different implications for public school staff employees in Los Angeles. LA and many other districts in CA and across the U.S. are dealing with searing budget cuts, furlough days, crowded classrooms and worst of all, layoffs.

In an LA Sentinel op-ed, SEIU Local 99's Executive Director Bill Lloyd considers the predicament of Bell High School night custodian Theresa Aguilar, who is facing a situation all too familiar to the thousand custodial, cafeteria, playground, and other essential classified positions were cut over the summer.

Every night, Theresa is responsible for cleaning the girls' locker room (including showers, restrooms, and the coach's office), the School Gymnasium (sweeping, light mopping, and restrooms), the boys' varsity field house (including the football players' locker room and restrooms), the faculty restrooms, the photo lab and graphic arts classroom, and the Assistant Principal's office.

The state budget cuts to education forced the Los Angeles Unified School District to lay off three of Theresa's co-workers in June. As a result, she now has eight additional classrooms and another small gymnasium added to her nightly workload. Among other things, she worries about being able to adequately sanitize all the surfaces to protect students and faculty from the Swine Flu.

Like many, Lloyd feels that that any furlough cost savings are a Band-Aid solution to a much larger problem. His point is this: California has been underfunding its schools for decades. With an education system that was once the envy of the country 30 years ago, they now rank 47th in per-pupil spending compared to other states--and furlough days are not going to be able to stop the elimination of student services and programs. Lloyd writes:

"We already know quality will be diminished...With fewer cafeteria workers at schools, fresh food prepared on-site won't be readily available. And, with most custodians handed workloads like Teresa's and directives from the District to only clean classrooms once a week, you can bet hallways won't be mopped daily, classrooms won't be dusted as often (parents, please keep an eye on your asthmatic children), and bathrooms won't be monitored as closely."

But the biggest problem in Lloyd's mind? This "slow-motion" school bus wreck has not ignited nearly enough collective alarm to lead to significant action to work towards investing more in their children's education. School workers and the District are working together to prevent more cuts.

To learn more about how you can help work to ensure that all children in need have access to hot meals, and how we can increase the federal reimbursement rate, click here. Sign this petition to support stronger standards in your workplace: http://action.seiu.org/page/s/cqsstandards.

In both the worlds of fiction and reality, "lunch ladies" (or as they're professionally known as, school food service workers) are taking a stand to create a better tomorrow.

In fiction, it's in the form of an increasingly-popular "graphic novel," starring a lunch lady whose mission is "serving justice - and serving lunch." The stories, written for young readers aged 5 to 10, center around the lunch lady and her fellow food service workers foiling evil school-related plots (for example, stopping an unpopular teacher's scheme to win the "Teacher of the Year Award," or battling a group of librarians who want to destroy all video games).
The stories are becoming so popular that Saturday Night Live alumna Amy Poehler has begun to executive produce a movie based on the series.

In the real world, school food service workers are coming out to take a stand for better lunches. Here's a great clip from local news channel WITI in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, covering the issue:

If you're a school food service worker or a concerned parent (you're a superhero, too, trust me!), you can also take matters into your own hands by visiting our page on the Child Nutrition Act: http://campaignforqualityservices.org/a/schoolmeals/index.php

First Lady Michelle Obama's White House garden, says the LA Times, is giving nutrition advocates "increased hope that Congress would bolster the school lunch program" when "it takes up renewing the Child Nutrition Act."

Ideas for improving the bill have many excited, with many different components being considered.

The LA Times reports that one of the portions "would give the Department of Agriculture authority to update decades-old standards" in regards to the types of food children can buy at stores and vending machines. The current standards are "inconsistent and often unhealthy," according to Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), who is the author of the U.S. House bill.

Other priorities include "expanding the breakfast program," because experts say that "starting the day hungry" affects "children's ability to behave and learn," as well as methods to "streamline the way students are deemed eligible for free meals" so that "more children qualify."

We've also weighed in on how reforming the Child Nutrition Act can help improve food safety, ensure that school food service workers are properly trained, and allows for sick days so that workers aren't forced to choose between preparing food while sick or losing a day's pay for their families. Take a look here: http://campaignforqualityservices.org/workers/

You can read the full article here.

With young students and their parents fully in "Back To School" mode, local papers have started to swirl around the topic of school lunches and the Child Nutrition Act, which is set to expire at the end of September.

In today's Daily Comet, a local paper in Louisiana, reporter Thad Angelloz gives an overview of how important the National School Lunch Act was, and talks about the strides that their schools are taking to ensure a healthy school meal.

Monica Walthers, the child nutrition supervisor from that school district, says that the National School Lunch Program - which is funded through the Child Nutrition Act - changed the entire culture of school cafeterias.

"This happened as a direct result of the Depression. They (government) understood how important it was for them to provide meals to children attending school."

Walthers' district, especially, is trying to ensure that the lunches they put out are nutritious. Gumbo, for instance, is now made without oils and is made with turkey sausage.

Child-nutrition supervisor Lauren Fletcher added that the program "continues to get better." "There's always things you can change...but we think we're hitting the mark for our students."

Over in North Carolina another child nutrition director, Nicole Mayernik, is working hard to provide "a healthy start and a happy belly" to her students, says the Watuga Democrat. Among her tasks are meeting and exceeding federal guidelines for nutrition, and closing the eligibility gap that exists so that low-income students have access to school meals.

"We want to ensure we're meeting the needs of the community and the students. Right now, we're working hard on our free and reduced lunch applications to let parents know they can receive free and reduced lunches and breakfasts."

She also credits her staff of food service workers, recognizing the important role they play. "I couldn't do this job without the staff's hard work. They have a relationship with the children and school administration."

Ultimately, she thinks everyone would benefit if the school meals program provided more access to school breakfasts. Only half of the children eligible for free or reduced lunches - 10 million out of the total 20 million children - have access to school breakfasts.

"Unhealthy students cannot learn," said Mayernik. "We see that when students don't eat breakfast. Their test scores go down. We try to offer them something here. Something is better than nothing. Can we meet those needs within financial restraints? We'd love to, but right now in child nutrition, we're taking it one bite at a time."

Over at our partner site, the Campaign for Quality Services, we've been pushing the notion of an improved Child Nutrition Act that works to close the eligibility gap, expand the school breakfast program, and raises standards for food service workers. You can check out our plan and give your support here: http://campaignforqualityservices.org/a/schoolmeals/index.php.

Record job losses and high unemployment will "push thousands more children into poverty," many for the first time, says Tony Pugh, a reporter for McClatchy Newspapers. The change could amount to a record number of children in the United States that will rely on free and reduced-price meals at school.

One indicator of the possible increased enrollment is the record number of families enrolled in the food stamp program, called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Children enrolled in that program are automatically eligible for both the school lunch and school breakfast programs. In May, 34.4 million people "used food stamps to buy groceries," an increase of 2 percent from April.

The increased enrollment is happening throughout the country. In central Florida's Polk County schools, there's been a 50 percent jump in the "number of students who pre-qualified for free lunches." In Illinois, Chicago public schools "have seen a 30 percent increase, going from 107,144 children eligible for free and reduced-cost meals at the start of last year" to a total of 139,417 this year."

Many of these students "will be newcomers to poverty," consisting of "the sons and daughters of laid-off energy and service sector employees or of relocated job seekers who've found it tougher than expected to find work."

While the districts currently receive a reimbursement from the United States Department of Agriculture in the amount of $2.68 per school meal, a report last year by the School Nutrition Association "found that the average cost to prepare a school meal was $2.90 in the last school year." It's a situation that leaves districts, who are already strapped for cash, in a difficult situation.

To learn more about how you can help work to ensure that all children in need have access to hot meals, and how we can increase the federal reimbursement rate, click here: http://campaignforqualityservices.org/a/schoolmeals/index.php.

Published today in Grist is a fantastic commentary by Kurt Michael Friese, a chef in Iowa City and a member of the board of directors for an organization called Slow Food USA. His article discusses how, in the last 50-75 years, we've moved from an "understanding of foods, of cooking, and of the pleasures of the kitchen" and replaced it with "the language of the drive-thru, the shopping mall, and the convenience store."

Friese makes a good point when he says that "our children are what they eat," and raises the question as to whether or not our children can be expected to learn and grow on "fat, salt, and corn-sweetener-laden government subsidized surplus."

Food service staff, Friese says, is "restrained by inefficient kitchens, ludicrous time restraints, and a budget that is laughable at best." Pointing to the current federal reimbursement rate for school lunches, Friese asks, "how well would you expect to eat on" that kind of budget?

Friese concludes that we need "a paradigm shift" when it comes to school meals. Rather than "just throwing money at the problem," we need a real investment in "the health and well-being of our children and our community," and parents "must no longer choose to ignore the situation to the proven detriment of their country."

To read the full commentary, head over to Grist's website here, and check out Slow Good USA's "Time for Lunch" campaign here: http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/campaign/time_for_lunch/our_partners/

The SouthtownStar, a local newspaper in Chicago, has an excellent article about our "lobby day" from a few weeks back, where we told our members of Congress that an improved Child Nutrition Act is needed to ensure that millions of children get the type of food that they need.

The article features two of our members, Laura Spiewak and Veronica Mendoza, who both work as food service workers for local high schools.

The article describes both as "women (who) take pride in bring food service workers," and argues that "students need more nutritional options and less of the processed stuff."

In the article, Laura Spiewak speaks about how much the visit mattered to her. "It was so empowering to think that someone like me - a lunch lady - could go there and possibly change things for the better."

Veronica Mendoza had similar sentiments, saying that she "(knows that) being a cafeteria lady isn't a very glamorous job, but it's important."

You can read the full article here: http://www.southtownstar.com/news/1689492,072909schoolfood.article

Childhood obesity rates in the United States have tripled, according to a new study by the Academic Pediatrics journal.

Using data collected by the National Health and Nutrition Survey, researchers looked at 12,384 children aged from 2 to 19 years, and were able to conclude that found that 3.8 percent of the children within the sample meet the criteria for "severe obesity."

Generalized to the entire childhood population of the United States, this could bean that nearly 2.7 million American children are severely obese.

Compared to data collected in between 1976 and 1980, the researchers found that the prevalence of severely obese children has essentially tripled in the last 25 years. Back then, only 0.8 percent of children met the criteria for severe obesity.

Among the groups that had the largest increases in severe obesity were children in families that are below the poverty level.

The study provides more evidence for the need of an improved Child Nutrition Act.

The findings in Academic Pediatrics show the need to ensure that healthy and nutritious school meals are available to our nation's children. Currently, there are far too many processed foods with even fewer nutrients in our school cafeteria menus. While the study concludes that more children need to be treated for obesity, we know that it's also important to prevent obesity in the first place, and that's exactly what good school meals can do.

But more importantly, the study also shows a huge need to improve accessibility for these programs. Currently, there are barriers to entry to the school meal program, and reducing them would be an excellent way to ensure that more children - especially those in need - are better able to access the nutritious and wholesome meals that this study shows they need.

Leslie Williams, a school food service worker, has been at the job for 20 years.

When she talks about her job, she lovingly refers to the children as "her babies." They rely on her to take care of them and cook them a wholesome meal during lunch. Sometimes, it's the only hot meal that they get that day.

"You know some of these children aren't going to get another meal until they come back in on Monday, and that's the hardest part of all," she says.

I had the pleasure of meeting Leslie just the other week, when she was in town for our Lobby Day, where she talked to Congress about the need to improve the Child Nutrition Act.

I was moved by her dedication and commitment to her job - and, even more, to the children that she serves. She speaks with a passion, whether she's talking about cooking, ensuring that every child is fed, or when she has a thought on how to improve school meals.

I wanted to share this video with you - it's from the conversation that we shared - because I feel that we have much to learn from her.

Here's the video:

You can help Leslie improve the Child Nutrition Act by writing a letter to Congress here: http://action.seiu.org/page/speakout/nutritionact.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is using her clout to back legislation that would make school lunches healthier. Among her ideas is to increase the federal reimbursement rate for the National School Lunch Program, which currently stands at $2.68 for a free lunch.

With school districts facing budget cuts all over the country, it's more important than ever to ensure that there's enough money and resources available to provide children with well-balanced and wholesome school meals. Increasing the federal reimbursement rate for meals would enable schools to cover the rising costs of meeting dietary guidelines and to purchase fresh, healthy foods.

Senator Gillibrand agrees, says that by increasing the federal reimbursement rate, schools will be able to provide more nutritious meals.

Here's what Senator Gillibrand said to Buffalo's WNED:

"This is an investment. I think making sure that our children don't become obese, and don't become obese adults and cost our healthcare system $500 billion a year is a very important priority."

Gillibrand "is also proposing legislation that would ban trans fats in school lunches" and "would reduce the amount of junk goods and snacks available in schools."

You can support an improved Child Nutrition Act - which is set to expire this fall - by writing a letter to your member of Congress: http://action.seiu.org/page/speakout/nutritionact

This past Wednesday, Service Workers United cafeteria workers from across the country went to Capitol Hill to lobby members of Congress for stronger USDA Child Nutrition Programs. One member of the group was Marlon Taylor, a food service worker from suburban Illinois. Here, Marlon discusses why he loves his job working with kids and why it's important to improve the Child Nutrition Act.

Last year in the U.S., a record 20 million subsidized school lunches were served each day. In Illinois, Taylor's home state, there were 713,755 free or reduced-price lunches served during the 2007-2008 school year alone.

Earlier this month, the agriculture appropriations committees in both chambers of Congress agreed to spend an additional $13 billion this year on nutrition programs. However, exactly how much of that will be allocated towards improving the quality and nutritional value of the food served to children in public schools remains up in the air.

Congress is scheduled to take up the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act this fall--which is why now is the time to lend your voice to tell Congress we need an improved Child Nutrition Act: http://action.seiu.org/page/speakout/nutritionact

For the first time in the 63-year history of our nation's School Lunch Program, front-line food service workers are on Capitol Hill today to petition their government to strengthen the program that serves food to more than 30 million children every day.

Because of the current economic crisis, more and more families are relying on school food programs to provide their children with a complete and well-balanced meal. Last month, USA Today reported that "nearly 20 million children now receive free or reduced-price lunches in the nation's schools, an all-time high" and that "many school districts are struggling to cover their share of the meals' rising costs.

On Capitol Hill, the 80 food service workers - members of Service Workers United, and from all over the country - are advocating for stronger USDA Child Nutrition Programs that will:

• Improve food safety, nutrition, health and wellness, and customer service by raising workplace standards and providing living wages, benefits, paid sick leave, and training for all school food service workers.
• Increase federal reimbursement rates for meals to enable schools to cover the rising costs of meeting dietary guidelines and to purchase fresh, healthy foods.
• Reach more struggling families by relaxing eligibility requirements, streamlining application processes, and allowing for regional variations in cost of living in determining eligibility.

These 80 food service workers are representative of the more than 420,000 workers employed in school cafeterias throughout the country. Although these workers' mission is to fight poverty and hunger work, some of them are paid as low as $6.55 an hour with no benefits.

Do your part by signing on to tell Congress we need an improved Child Nutrition Act: http://action.seiu.org/page/speakout/nutritionact

During the school year in New Jersey, school lunch is provided at a reduced cost or for free to thousands of poor students to help eliminate at least one significant and widely recognized barrier to an education: hunger. The number of students qualifying for free and reduced-price lunches was up about 5 percent nationwide this spring, to nearly 19.4 million from 18.4 million the previous year, according to federal officials. These numbers were reflected in New Jersey's numbers as the number of NJ students receiving free and lower-cost lunches grew by 11 percent to over 340,000 during the 2008-2009 school year.

The economic downturn has left many families barely able to put food on the table, and school meals have been reported as a critical source of family food and nutrition for millions of America's children. But what happens to these children of low-income families when school lets out for the summer--do they just go without breakfast and lunch until September?

Thanks to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Summer Food Service Program, the answer to this question is 'no.' Across the state of New Jersey, camps and food pantries have geared up to meet an increasing need for more feeding locations.

This summer, there will be 14 more locations than last year, for a total of 1,034 feeding locations statewide. One city that is setting a great example with their program is Newark--at more than 30 summer school sites, roughly 7,300 free meals per day will be served to the area's low-income kids. And unlike the lunch program that runs during the school year, there is no income-verification requirement for kids to get a free meal through the summer feeding service.

Key to making this a sustainable program and replicating the model elsewhere, like in New York City and Los Angeles,- is the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act later this year in September. An improved Child Nutrition Act is a top priority for the thousands of school food service workers that SEIU represents.

One crucial element to an improved Child Nutrition Act is improving the lives of New Jersey's public school food service workers, who are struggling to support their own families in very much the same manner the families whose children qualify to receive free meals are.

Poverty wages: A recent report from Rutgers University's Center for Women and Work found that the average hourly wage for food preparation workers in educational services was only $8.15. At the grand sum of $8.15 per hour, working 5 days a week, every week, these workers earn $15,648 a year-with sub-par health coverage, no retirement, no vacation days and no sick days. By comparison, the federal poverty level for a family of three is $17,600. To qualify for free meals in NJ, a family of four must have an income no greater than $28,665.

The low wages a food service worker in New Jersey typically earns can make taking time off--even if they are ill--something of a monetary impossibility, since they don't receive any paid sick leave. These are the same workers who handle the food the state's children consume for two out of three daily meals, five days a week. You can support sick days for our school's food service workers by clicking here.

Learn more at our partner site, the Campaign for Quality Services.

In a move that "could have a major effect on public school food service workers' wages," the New Jersey State Legislature is considering a new bill that would make sure that workers are paid the prevailing wage, according to business magazine NJBIZ.

The bill would allow food service workers to enter the middle class and "reduce their dependence on the government for health care and other support." It would also mandate sick leave, which would alleviate workers of the burden of choosing between a day's pay or coming to work while sick.

SEIU's Kevin Brown, an area director for Local 32BJ is quoted in the article as saying that the bill will "allow people to give back in taxes and spending," which would also help the economy.

The bill's sponsor, State Sen. Fred Madden (D-Washington) says the bill will save the state money "by reducing workers' needs for social services." Currently, the food service industry, according to NJBIZ, "has the highest percentage of workers using state-funded NJ FamilyCare healthcare." Sen. Madden hopes that the bill can be voted on in the fall.

Read the full article here.

You can also help to lend your support for workers' sick days by signing our official petition here: http://action.seiu.org/page/s/swusickdays

Today, the Associated Press published an interesting profile on the Philadelphia, PA school district and its pilot program for feeding its hungry children through school meals.

In the Philadelphia model, the school district provides free school meals for all children in schools "with a high percentage of low-income students." These "universal" meals are served in schools where at least 75 percent of the student body meets the low-income threshold. In Philly, more than 85 percent of students qualify.

But there's another interesting component of the Philly program: there are no forms necessary to enroll in the program.

By ridding of the forms, food service directors claim it "eliminates the costly bureaucracy that both deters needy families from applying for subsidized meals and stigmatizes those who do complete the forms." According to the AP, experts say many children who are eligible and would benefit from the program do not participate because of language barriers, literacy issues and humiliation when completing the necessary forms.

The district maintains that there's another benefit to the Philly model: the money saved on the administrative costs allows the school to absorb the costs of the free meals not already covered by government reimbursements.

According to the AP, the program "benefits students and especially working parents, who save time and money knowing their children will have a meal waiting for them at school."

The article quotes Janet Hernandez, a mother of three, who says that "sometimes, we need that extra help as far as food goes. That's one thing that we have to worry about as parents."

While Bush Administration officials threatened to close the program by 2010, President Obama's new Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, pledges to continue the program.

Key to the program - and replicating the model elsewhere, like in New York City and Los Angeles, where there is interest - is the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act later this year. An improved Child Nutrition Act is a top priority for the thousands of school food service workers that SWU represents.

Read the full article here and everything you need to know about the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act here on our partner site, the Campaign for Quality Services.