{"id":39410,"date":"2023-01-02T23:12:01","date_gmt":"2023-01-02T23:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/la-crosse-school-lunch-debt-eclipses-14000-while-district-works-with-families-community-to-keep-kids-fed-wizm-92-3fm-1410am\/"},"modified":"2023-01-02T23:12:01","modified_gmt":"2023-01-02T23:12:01","slug":"la-crosse-school-lunch-debt-eclipses-14000-while-district-works-with-families-community-to-keep-kids-fed-wizm-92-3fm-1410am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/la-crosse-school-lunch-debt-eclipses-14000-while-district-works-with-families-community-to-keep-kids-fed-wizm-92-3fm-1410am\/","title":{"rendered":"La Crosse school lunch debt eclipses $14,000, while district works with families, community to keep kids fed \u2013 WIZM 92.3FM 1410AM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div id=\"mvp-content-main\">\n<p>About halfway through the school year, and the school lunch debt numbers are adding up in La Crosse.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past two years, this wasn\u2019t an issue, because a federal government program provided free school meals to every student. That, however, ended last summer, and meal debt for La Crosse School District families has hit $14,224 through October.<\/p>\n<p>Within the district, 48 percent of students \u2014 2,657 students \u2014 are eligible for free-reduced meals. Of that number, nearly half \u2014 1,278 \u2014\u00a0 are elementary students.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>LA CROSSE SCHOOL DISTRICT LUNCH DEBT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Current School Lunch Debt<\/strong> (through October):\u00a0 $14,224<br \/><strong>Past Lunch Debt<\/strong>:<br \/>2017 End-of-Year Meal Debt Clear:\u00a0 $5,324<br \/>2018 End-of-Year Meal Debt Clear: $7,511<br \/>2019 End-of-Year Meal Debt Clear:\u00a0 $10,626<br \/>2020: End of Year Meal Debt Clear: $10,975<br \/>2021: $0 (All Students received free meals)<br \/>2022: $0 (All Students received free meals)<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<p>Brad Bryan runs Central High School\u2019s food pantry, called La Cocina, and is working on other ways to help students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe kids, they can\u2019t go hungry,\u201d Bryan said recently on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wizmnews.com\/la-crosse-talk-pm-with-rick-solem\/\">La Crosse Talk PM<\/a>. \u201cBeing hungry at school means they\u2019re not learning.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-omny-studio wp-block-embed-omny-studio\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Central's Bryan, La Crosse County's Graff talk food insecurity in school, region\" src=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/la-crosse-talk-pm\/centrals-bryan-la-crosse-countys-graff-talk-food-i\/embed\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIf we\u2019re going to make kids come to school, the least we can do is feed them while they\u2019re there, or make sure they\u2019re not hungry,\u201d Bryan added. \u201cSo, in addition to the food pantry that we have, I have a smaller food pantry that any teacher has a key, they can open up the cabinet. They can take out food and the kids can eat that day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The success coach, however, is trying to evolve La Cocina into more than a food pantry. He\u2019s rebranding the name to Central Cares.<\/p>\n<p>Through the food pantry, Bryan can only use funding on food. Through Central Cares, he can acquire hygiene products, which are also highly needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGenerally, I don\u2019t want anybody\u2019s food donations,\u201d Bryan said, \u201cbut if anybody out there wants to give me a bunch of toothbrushes, antiperspirant, shampoo and conditioner \u2014 anything like that \u2014 I would gladly take it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bryan added that checks to Central High School with \u201cCentral Cares\u201d in the memo go a long way, too.<\/p>\n<p>Donations from the community are often the fix to these dilemmas. School Lunch debt in the past has been paid off in that way, through groups like the Beer By Bike Brigade, which sounds like a bunch of people who bike around drinking beer. And they do that, but they are also finding multiple ways to help those in need throughout the Coulee Region.<\/p>\n<p>The La Crosse School District\u2019s nutrition director, Marilyn Volden, said they\u2019re working to help families pay off the debt, now that the free school meals program has ended.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was wonderful to have all students be able to have access to free meals during the pandemic,\u201d Volden said in an email to WIZM. \u201cSince the end of the universal free meals, we have spent a tremendous amount of time tracking meal status, account balances, and working with families to provide access to meals at school through free\/reduced meal applications.<\/p>\n<p>Volden added that they are working with schools to get enrolled in what\u2019s called CEP (Community Eligibility Program).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll students in those buildings get a free breakfast and lunch each school day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/__i\/rss\/rd\/articles\/CBMijQFodHRwczovL3d3dy53aXptbmV3cy5jb20vMjAyMy8wMS8wMi9sYS1jcm9zc2Utc2Nob29sLWx1bmNoLWRlYnQtZWNsaXBzZXMtMTQwMDAtd2hpbGUtZGlzdHJpY3Qtd29ya3Mtd2l0aC1mYW1pbGllcy1jb21tdW5pdHktdG8ta2VlcC1raWRzLWZlZC_SAZEBaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud2l6bW5ld3MuY29tLzIwMjMvMDEvMDIvbGEtY3Jvc3NlLXNjaG9vbC1sdW5jaC1kZWJ0LWVjbGlwc2VzLTE0MDAwLXdoaWxlLWRpc3RyaWN0LXdvcmtzLXdpdGgtZmFtaWxpZXMtY29tbXVuaXR5LXRvLWtlZXAta2lkcy1mZWQvYW1wLw?oc=5\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About halfway through the school year, and the school lunch debt numbers are adding up in La Crosse. Over the past two years, this wasn\u2019t an issue, because a federal government program provided free school meals to every student. That, however, ended last summer, and meal debt for La Crosse School District families has hit &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[161],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39410"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}