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President Sue called the meeting to order at 12:30 p.m. with 19 Zoom and 40 in-person attendees. Missy Lilje delivered the invocation, followed by the Patriotic Song – America – played by John Dale Smith. Irv Nichols introduced Rotarians to RSVP – Retired & Senior Volunteer Programs of Ingham, Eaton and Clinton Counties, whose volunteers give their time and talent to make a difference in the lives of children and seniors. The phone number for RSVP is: 517-887-6116 and their email is community@rsvp-lansing.com to download an application or go to the offices at 2400 Pattengill, Lansing (former Elmhurst Elementary School). President Sue led club members in the recitation of the Four-Way Test. John Cauley reported that the Health of the Club was good and that he had nothing to report. President Sue added that Pam Miklavcic’s surgery was to take place Monday, Jan. 31. President Sue thanked Cathy Andrews’ sister, Linda, for helping out in past weeks with the distribution of parking tickets at the registration table. Chris Holman took the podium to present the January birthday report, but first, he made an important announcement about Dave O’Leary’s coat, which someone accidentally thought was theirs and went home with it after the Jan. 21 club meeting. Chris described Dave’s missing coat as a Franklin Roosevelt model purchased in 1937. He asked that the coat be returned with darning needles. Chris then announced that 100 percent of Rotarians with January birthdays participated in making a birthday donation, as always. They were asked to share a highlight from 2021. Rich Schaberg told Chris about a delightful four-week drive that he and his wife, Joy, took in the summer. They visited seven national parks. Janet Lillie reported to Chris that she got to spend more time with her dog. As an afterthought, she added that she’d also spent more time with her husband. Hoping for better, Chris asked her, “Not necessarily in that order?” Janet sent him a photo of her dog. Chris then announced the arrival of his seventh grandchild. Congratulations, Chris! He added that another highlight happened to him at noon every Friday. Aww, Chris! In wrapping up his report, Chris said he looks forward to Rotary every Friday and is glad to be meeting in person again. Among four January birthday celebrants, $450 was raised. Bravo! Rotarians sang Happy Birthday, accompanied by John Dale Smith on piano. President Sue lamented the lack of special music but expressed gratitude for ongoing attempts during COVID-19 to feature performing artists. She thanked Gabrielle Lawrence for being January’s Chair of the Month. Missy Lilje introduced Jody Taratuta, General Manager for Lansing School District’s Food Services Program and Menu Customization Planning Team. She also acknowledged Mark Harsley, who was also in attendance. Mark is Executive Director of Sodexo Magic. Missy aptly described Jody as one in a million – a woman with a sparkle in her smile, a glimmer in her eyes and a song in her voice. She told Jody that she appreciated her as a professional and as a unique human being. Jody shared with Rotarians “The Journey” that Sodexo has been on in the Lansing School District since 2014. For those who don’t know, Sodexo is a global company that has been around since 1966. SodexoMAGIC was founded in 2006 – a partnership between Sodexo and NBA Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson. As the lead lunch lady for the past 20 years, Jody is grateful for her team. She considers herself lucky to have a dedicated group of employees: 87 hourly employees and seven managers, including an executive chef and director of operations. Sodexo is in 25 Lansing School District buildings, serving children, including the Ebersole Center, which is about an hour and a half away. Within the school district’s 25 buildings, there are 30 Great Start Readiness Program classrooms in 14 schools. Sodexo provides meals to families as well as children not in school. The school nutrition program is a federal program, a state program and a local program. The federal component of the program is represented by its funding. Sodexo operates a school-nutrition program, which is primarily a breakfast and lunch program; child and adult-care food program – an after-school snack program, in-school/preschool snack program; summer feeding program. They also generate local revenue, which includes anything they’re doing outside of a federal program. Jody summarized the history of the school lunch program: In 1941, the National School Meals Policy was introduced to help prevent food insecurities. In 1966, the Child Nutrition Act brought in the School Breakfast Program. Among the 25 school buildings, 21 do breakfast in the classroom to support our community and help children learn by not going hungry. In 2010, the School Nutrition Program rocked the world with the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. This was the first update in many years, and brought whole grains and mandatory fruits and vegetables to the lunch program. It brought the opportunity for non-pricing meal service options for schools and school districts, known as Community-Eligibility Provision. Your Lansing School District administration and board supported bringing in CEP. They took the stance that the nutrition of the community – by not pricing breakfast and lunch meals – was more important. The USDA came up with alternative ways to capture information, which is used to supplement what is being done with CEP. That program is offered by direct certification, which is food stamps, Medicaid and Medicare. Any school district with a 40 percent or above direct-certification rate is eligible to serve meals free. Lansing is currently over 70 percent direct certification. It is a program that needs to be renewed every four years. Lansing took advantage of the horrible pandemic and reupped for another four-year cycle last year. Through the school meals program, which is the program that most schools are running, every child in a participating school district eats breakfast and lunch for free. They are doing this under waivers because of the pandemic. Those waivers are set to expire at the end of June. School districts that have not participated in CEP may have to go back to charging families for meals. With all that’s been done in Lansing to promote nutrition and the well-being of students, the district will continue to feed students for free, regardless of waivers. Jody said, “We need the pandemic to go away.” She does not know what meals programs will look like when the waiver expires. She has no idea how to budget for that possibility. The waiver allowed any school district to open and offer meals during the summer. Jody had two calls to action: Volunteer. Volunteer to help distribute meals at Hill Center or to donate. This is coordinated through Northwest Initiative. And, if there’s any way for anyone you know to get support to extend nutrition waivers for the 2022-’23 school year, please do so. Also, if anyone is interested in volunteering to put together the Weekend Survival Kits here is the website: www.weekendsurvivalkits.org Lolo Robison's email is: LRobison@cata.org |
