New Haven Independent

Budget Impasse Claims Kale, Tomatoes

by Melissa Bailey | August 24, 2009 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

(Updated) Barnard’s vegetables were Democrats’ Exhibit A of mean budget cuts by Gov. Rell — though it turned out that Democrats want to cut back on the kale, too.

When the statewide budget debate came to Barnard School Monday afternoon, it boiled down to a question of serving size: Senate Democrats who called the press event started by drawing contrasts between their budget proposal and the governor’s, but ended up arguing over degrees.

They were arguing about the Healthy Food Program, which rewards school systems that meet healthy food requirements. The requirements limit salt, sugar and fat and encourage the serving of whole grains and fresh fruit and vegetables. In exchange for meeting those requirements, schools get an extra 10 cents for each school lunch served, to spend on healthful food. The $4 million program serves 114 school districts in the state. Gov. M. Jodi Rell proposes to cut the Healthy Food Program by 50 percent, or $2 million, over two years.

It turns out that Democrats also want to cut the program, but by a lesser amount. Either way, it will be a “devastating” blow for New Haven’s school lunch program, according to top school chef Tim Cipriano.

Monday’s event came as lawmakers struggle to pass a tax and spending package for the current fiscal year, nearly two months after the last budget expired.

Democrats said they called the press conference to “highlight the human costs” of Rell’s proposed cuts. Standing near the sunflowers in an inner garden of the Barnard Environmental Studies Magnet School on Derby Avenue, they offered the Healthy Food Program as one example of how Rell’s budget priorities are out of whack. The food in that garden isn’t jeopardized by the cuts, but it served as an example of the type of fresh food that is.

New Haven Sen. Toni Harp (at left in top photo) hailed the Healthy Food Program as a key tool in the fight against childhood obesity. Guilford Sen. Ed Meyer said it provides a “safety net” for students who don’t get good nutrition at home.

“The governor’s cuts would really threaten the survival of the program,” declared New Haven Sen. Martin Looney (at right in top photo), the senate majority leader. He stood by beds of dinosaur kale, grape tomatoes and tea leaves that are used in Barnard students’ meals as part of a sweeping effort to bring New Haven students fresher, more healthful food.

Rell’s cuts would force schools to make a difficult choice, Looney argued: either find other revenue for the program or eliminate it and resort to offering junk food.

Looney said the program shows Rell’s priorities are wrong. In cutting the program, Rell “asks students to sacrifice instead of millionaires,” read a release from his office. Instead of seeing services like the Healthy Food Program as expendable, Democrats see them as vital, he said. To maintain funding to this and other programs, Democrats propose a progressive income tax.

“In a time when many families are struggling to put food on the table, it makes no sense to target our lunch programs,” Looney added, in a written statement that supplemented his remarks.

In a written statement, Rell’s office wrote that all “deserving” programs will be fully funded next year.

“Every school child in Connecticut entitled to free and nutritious school lunches and breakfasts will continue to receive them,” the statement read. “That has not changed and will not change. The funding in question involves an extra 10 cents to enhance food choices for all students. Governor Rell hopes that a state budget will be in place by the end of the week and that all deserving programs and services the state provides to all its citizens will be funded for the entire fiscal year.”

Reached Monday afternoon, state GOP Chairman Chris Healy dismissed Democrats alarm call as “disingenuous,” because “chances are, if we do come down to a budget, this [program] will fall by the wayside.” He said by focusing on a tiny, $4 million program, Democrats are taking attention away from the big costs, like personnel, education grants, and aide to towns.

Healy said instead of blaming the “big, bad Republicans” for slashing the budget, Democrats should take advantage of their super-majority status and pass a budget themselves.

Dems Would Trim Program, Too

Looney mentioned, but didn’t emphasize, that the Democrats are targeting the Healthy Food Program, too — just to a lesser degree. Rell proposes cutting the program by 50 percent, or $2 million over two years. Democrats propose a 25 percent cut, or $1 million over the same period.

If the program’s so important, why are Democrats willing to cut it by 25 percent? Looney was asked.

Looney replied that the Democrats reluctantly proposed the cut only after Rell proposed the much deeper cut. The cut is “painful,” and one that “we would very much like not to make,” and is an unfortunate product of an “unprecedentedly” tough budget year, he said.

Democrats’ willingness to cut back on fresh fruit and vegetables in schools shows that Democrats are willing to make sacrifices in spending, contrary to what Rell has been saying, Looney argued.

Sens. Harp, Meyers and Looney all said they were not happy with the 25 percent cut, and would push for a lesser blow to students’ fresh food supply, such as a 10 percent cut.

The Healthy Food Program is “one that we should try to preserve even more of the funding,” Looney said.

“Even if we are able to rescue the program” by making a smaller than 25-percent cut, Looney warned, “there will of course be some cuts to the program.”

Salad Days Are Numbered

Either way you slice it, the Democratic and Repulican budget proposals would spell “devastating” cuts to the city’s new effort to bring healthy food like kale, fresh tomatoes and potatoes into the school lunch room, said Cipriano, the city’s new head of food services.

New Haven receives $280,000 per year from the Healthy Food Program, he said. New Haven joined the program as soon as it was created through the legislature in 2006.

The grant specifically supports extras like fruit and vegetables that supplement school lunches a la carte. The bigger picture, he said, is that it comprises 3 percent of the school system’s food budget and helps the schools offer new healthful offerings, like baked chicken, whole grains and string beans.

Some of the kids in New Haven come to school for their only meal of the day, Cipriano said.

He said in light of the impending cuts from the state, he has to reassess his food menu, one week before school opens. The cuts may mean he can only offer salad once a week instead of three times a week, he said. They may mean more canned vegetables instead of crunchy fresh ones.

“With these cuts on the horizon, all bets are off,” he said. “Because of these cuts, we will not be able to continue to offer the abundant variety of fresh fruits and vegetables that you can see in this garden on a daily basis.”

Leaders of End Hunger Connecticut! and the School Nutrition Association of CT joined Cipriano in fighting the cuts to the 114 school systems in the state that benefit from the program.

Lashae Payton (pictured), the mother of a first-grader at Barnard, stopped by with her kids to support the school system. She sampled some dinosaur kale (pictured) and grape tomatoes.

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Posted by: Bill | August 24, 2009 4:23 PM

Is this a joke? The plants shown are summer plants, school is out during the summer. Are they doing canning as well. How much food is gotten from the garden?

"either find other revenue for the program or eliminate it and resort to offering junk food."
Really, that's the only choice to offer twinkies and donuts?

Posted by: mg | August 24, 2009 4:29 PM

thanks again gov. rell and the rest of you who care NOTHING for our children and their schools. while i'd like to say that i am surprised by your actions sadly i cannot.

Posted by: working (too hard)mom | August 24, 2009 5:03 PM

It is all about priorities....You have families whose income has been slashed or eliminated due to lay offs. A 25 or 50% reduction to this program seems pretty good to me in these tough economic times. Yyes, canned vegetables may not be as nutritous as fresh, but I believe there will be no irreperable harm done to our kids! My monthly home budget has been reduced and I do not take as many trips to those ridiculously expensive farmers markets as I would like. I would expect the state and schools have to do the same. When better times come along, my family will feast once again! I'd rather see state funds go towards job creation so families can survive.

Posted by: LANCE | August 24, 2009 7:09 PM

people need to start feeding their own kids for christ's sake. did the constitution have an article giving individuals the right to have as many kids as they want and have others pay for every single living expense? i don't think so.

the welfare population is reproducing at a much faster rate than the rest of society. something needs to be done about that. Something a little more effective than midnight basketball.

And for the record, nobody died from chicken nuggets and generic elio's type pizza at hamden high in the big 80's.

Posted by: City Hall Watch | August 24, 2009 9:27 PM

The silly budget season just can't end fast enough. So we have to suffer through yet another episode of the Looney/Harp comedy hour chronicling yet another (gasp) atrocity that will happen because funding is cut. If all you need is $280,000, go see the mayor, he seems able to find money in the budget for senior level stealthy payraises, retirement bonuses and needless double dipping throughout the city. Maybe food for the kids is important enough to catch his attention.

Better yet, feed the kids that can't afford it and let the rest of our kids bring their lunch or buy it. PB and Js never killed any of the six kids in my family. I wonder how much of this "fresh food" gets tossed each day? I'm sorry, but even I don't eat kale.

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | August 24, 2009 9:50 PM

Hey Lance
How about these two welfare programs.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989508,00.html
And how about our tax dollars being used to hire Hitmem.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/us/20intel.html?ref=us

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/us/21intel.html?ref=us

Posted by: Ward 30 Res | August 25, 2009 1:47 AM

Lance, maybe no one died, but you sure lost a lot of brain cells.

Posted by: Frank DeCrescenzo | August 25, 2009 2:36 AM

Why do the schools need to be rewarded for choosing healthy foods. If it's in the childrens best interest shouldn't they do it? Also, as another poster pointed out, it is the parents' responsibility to make sure the children are eating well. If you don't like the lunches provided by the schools, make them lunch.

Posted by: Colleen | August 25, 2009 8:01 AM

Lance, people on public assistance have smaller families on average than the rest of the population. As a parent, of course, I agree with you that I'm responsible for my child's basic needs. But I also recognize that I'm very fortunate to have a job in this economy that allows me to do that. Not everyone is so lucky. If my paying a few dollars more in taxes helps kids eat healthier, I'm all for it.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | August 25, 2009 1:13 PM

I will say it again... take bus loads of kids up to Rell's house but bowls in there hand and have them repeat one line over and over...please Mame can we have some more??

http://publiccollectors.org/Matt Bua Food Songs/178 Food, Glorious Food.mp3

Posted by: lance | August 25, 2009 1:35 PM

nice one Ward 30 Res. lol.

and 3/5ths i agree with you about corporate welfare being a drag. i'm a darwinist in case you haven't noticed, and that applies to the corporate world also. it saddened me to see all this bailout crap, cash for clunkers, ect. it even bothers me when liberal hollywood always gets a tax break from ct. when they shoot here.

and regarding your other links i like the cia paying mercenaries to whack jihadists. it's cost effective and saves civilian lives. unfortunately we have a president now whose socio-religious ideologies are closer to anti-american jihadists than to the U.S. troops that have fought and in some cases died for our freedom.

so now obama is going after cia operatives criminally while simultaneously undoing everything we did in iraq and overseeing a war in afganistan that has seen a huge spike in u.s. troop deaths. and not so coincidentally those troop deaths are almost exclusively bush era enlistees. how convenient for him. he's so broken up over it that he to go unwind in the vineyard.

and colleen if you can prove from a reasonable source that people on public assistance reproduce at a lower rate than non entitlement collecting people i'll donate 100 bucks to the charity of your choice. but i also get to produce statistics indicating the contrary.

and do you really think your current situation was "luck"? is tiger woods a good golfer because he's "lucky"? of course not, his parents groomed him to be successful, and he put forth the effort to see their collective vision through. there are too many kids having kids in new haven and all they ever learned and all they ever teach their own kids is the section 8-welfare- food stamp-medicaid-drug dealing routine. i know a few teachers who state the amount of kids in their class that have a parent in jail is so high that it's considered routine. if the liberals and the obama's were the true champions of justice they claim to be they would address this in a way other than taking money from rich folks and handing it out in the ghettos and to minorities. but they haven't. and when bill cosby told young black males to step up and to the right thing he was called an uncle tom.

and as far as kale is concerned if you catch ferarros at the right time you can get it at 50 cents for a big bag on the close to expiration rack. add a little hot sausage (1.99 lb) an onion, goya white beans, a bullion cube and some spices you have an awesome soup.

Posted by: streever | August 26, 2009 11:44 PM

Lance,
your ignorant screeds are tiresome. Why don't you do some simple research and find out that the poor pay more taxes in CT than the rich? Honestly I'm not going to give you the credit that would be required to say that you would change your tune. You actually are that ignorant, judging by your commentary.

---

Nice job Looney & Harp. Score some political points while cutting this program 25% instead of 50%? that's really lame. I've met both of you in person & I'd say this to your face too. Please explain why a 25% cut is acceptable but a 50 isn't. I'm a democrat & going to vote democrat regardless--and would support either of you in a gubernatorial race--but I am extremely unhappy that either of you New Haven reps would hurt us this way.

If you don't know what this program has done for our schools I encourage you to read the NHI.

Posted by: streever | August 26, 2009 11:47 PM

Lance, reality call:
http://reptimobrien.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-do-middle-class-and-poor-pay-more.html

Posted by: lance | August 28, 2009 8:08 AM

my buddy works at a factory with some of those "working poor". any time one of them finds out about some new handout they flock to the copy machine like little kids at the ice cream truck and burn off 100 copies of the application. for most, it's a hustle. and if you talk to them, they'll laughingly admit it's a hustle.

And 12 percent of $12,200 is $1,400 (working poor). 4.5 percent of $4,219,200 is about $190,000 (rich).

so as you can see, even based upon the assumption made in the link you provided, the rich people are paying over 100 times more in taxes than the poor. for the same federal, state, and local services. actually the rich get less services because they don't get food stamps, section 8, welfare, ect. and they often send their kids to private schools.

so you guys keep waving your hammer and sickle flags, and i'll keep clutching my copy of the origin of species.

Budget Impasse Claims Kale, Tomatoes

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