Simple Rewards

Today I got a good reminder of Why I Do This. Which I needed, I've been feeling very overwhelmed lately.
One of my second graders has been working really hard on our reading program, and her fluency and comprehension has increased a lot. I started working with her in February, and she wasn't writing complete sentences, she was skipping words and losing her place when she read out loud, and she wasn't motivated to get any better. Since then, I've watched her get excited as she reaches a goal reading rate (usually about 100 words per minute), and she's gotten to see her own growth on the graph we keep.
Today she completed her twelfth story and I sent them all home, with a "Super Reader" certificate. She was absolutely thrilled at the prospect of showing all the good work she has done to her parents.
I was a little hesitant to send home a packet like that - the certificate asks the parents to read and discuss the stories with their students. I was hesitant because I so often hear "Oh that kid's parents are never home," "That student has no support at home," and, most often, "No one at home speaks English." However, I did it, and will continue to do it, because I want to offer families every opportunity to be involved in their child's education. Even if parents don't speak English, I will encourage my students to talk about their reading with them. It's all about reading and understanding, it doesn't matter if the discussion is done in English, Spanish, or Pig Latin.

In other news, I have less than $10 in food stamps to last me until the 6th of May. Oops. There will be some creative cooking these next few weeks.

$7 a day - Take that, Rachel Ray!

The past few weeks, I've been missing things. Missing the time to write. Missing news stories, missing important dates, missing the news that last week was The United Way of King County's Hunger Action Week. Granted, I don't live in King County any more, but it's still one of those things I feel I should have known about.
The idea is, try to feed yourself for only $7 a day - also known as the maximum food stamp benefit available in Washington State. Also known as what I have done every day since September.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the idea. I think it's great. I think everyone should be aware of how difficult it is to eat good, healthy food on food assistance. What I really appreciate is that bloggers like The Gluten-Free Girl - who is, as her name implies, gluten free - are participating and blogging about the experience. It's much more difficult to live off of $7 a day when you can't buy a 99cent loaf of bread.
I am completely inspired by The Gluten-Free Girl's entry about her experience this past week, and I am making my own plans. Plans that include baking my own bread, roasting a chicken, and using my awesome new crock pot. Plans that include a real, honest-to-goodness budget for my food.
Because, you see, for the first time since September, I used up all my food stamp benefits before the month was over.
To be fair, I bought five different kinds of gluten-free flours to make a bread that I took a class to learn how to make. And Xanthan Gum, which is pretty much the most expensive white powder that you can buy legally. Now that I made the initial investment, I can make my own gluten-free sourdough bread, and make sandwiches and eat toast... very exciting.
However, this month I also did things like buy lunch at the Co-Op deli counter several times, as well as buy frozen meals to take to school. When you are living off of $7 a day for food, a $5 sandwich is not a good idea.
Planning meals is a big step in the right direction for food budgeting, and buying in bulk is another good way to stretch your food dollars. That's why I was excited to hear that Costco is now accepting food stamps (I am lucky enough to have a membership, I'm tacked on as a "domestic partner" to a family member). While I was searching the internet to confirm the rumor, I stumbled across this article/blog entry, by Aaron Crow, a "freelance journalist," with a lot of opinions. To give you a general idea of this particular opinion, it's titled "Costco accepting food stamps: not exactly a great idea." Some choice quotes:

"There are no 15 items or less lines at Costco to speed things up because no one buys less than 15 items at a time. I've been a Costco member for about six years, and I don't think I've ever walked out of there without dropping at least $100."

"I don't know how someone on food stamps who is shopping there maybe once a month can justify paying $50 for the privilege of shopping there for a year, but the enticing free food samples might make a meal in themselves during a visit and make the membership fee seem cheap."

And the kicker:  (Note: SNAP is the Federal name for Food Benefits)

"I'm all for increasing the purchasing power of shoppers, but SNAP users may have to be protected from themselves. The federal program prevents some items such as liquor and cigarettes from being bought with SNAP benefits. Maybe it should add Costco to the list of banned purchases."

I have to say, even after reading this article several times, I'm still struck speechless by the ridiculousness of that last statement. And of the article as a whole. Basically, Aaron believes that Food Stamp recipients are simply too dumb, or at least lack the self-control, to spend their benefits wisely. Since he himself can't go into Costco without buying a 25 gallon jar of olives, it obviously means that poor people won't be able to do so, either.
I could go on for pages, dissecting this mans logic, but I don't need to. Because he is wrong. I know this because I am on food stamps, and I plan on using them to purchase Quinoa, frozen vegetables, and possibly coffee. I will not buy "four pounds of red king crab for $99.99," because I am not an idiot.

Unfortunately, this attitude towards Food Stamp users is quite prevalent. There is a strange assumption amongst the general population that people who use food stamps are lazy, fat, and stupid. The New York Times had an interesting "debate" about this in December.  - I use quotations because everyone seems to agree. The second paragraph of the introduction sums it up nicely:

If people buy fresh vegetables or other relatively expensive though nutritious foods, they are considered to be living high on the hog at the taxpayers’ expense. But if they buy cheap foods like hot dogs they are criticized for poor health habits.

 Imagine you are feeding a family of four - you jumped through all the hoops to get food stamps, you now have $22 a day to spend to feed your family. You also work two jobs, can't read English at all, get around on the bus or by walking, and are unfamiliar with most of the food you see in the grocery store. How do you feed your family? You find the cheapest, most filling foods you can find, that take the least amount of time to prepare, or that your kids can prepare on their own while you are at work. So: hot dogs, canned soup, microwavable meals if your third grader can read the directions.

We need to teach people how to get the best nutrition for their dollars. We need to teach people how to cook with the food available to them - whether you came from Mexico, Thailand, or India, the food on the grocery store shelves is not going to look friendly to you. We need people to understand that sugary breakfast cereals and soda are not foods that will help them get through their day, no matter what they see in the advertisements.

The PTA at my school is starting a schoolyard garden, something I think all schools need, especially low-income schools. Students and their parents being involved and educated about gardening is how we start a food revolution - and that's what we all need, whether we are on public assistance or not.


**Edited to add:
I just found this article about the United Way Challenge at the Seattle Times website. I almost feel like the people who are "taking the challenge" aren't taking it seriously. They are worried about entertaining? First of all - it's totally possible. My best friend came over for breakfast this morning. Also, why do you think potlucks were invented? Second of all - when you are living off of an income that qualifies you for food stamps, you're probably not worried about hosting the neighborhood cocktail party.

The Wild Things Are Here!

After four weeks of planning (which felt, at times, like four years or four days), we held our first Family Literacy Event last night.

Our theme was the book Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak. We planned to have it this week because the movie adaptation, directed by Spike Jonze, opens tomorrow. It looks amazing and I, for one, am really excited to go see it.

Our Family Night included two art projects, readings of the story in both English and Spanish, a raffle, and refreshments.

Since it was Washington Reading Corps first event at the school, we had no idea how many people to expect. I had a brief moment of panic yesterday afternoon when I was convinced that we were going to have fifteen volunteers and five families. As it turned out, we had 47 families attend, and that’s only counting the ones who signed in – I’m sure there were a few who got past us. Forty-seven families – most families consisted of three people, be it two parents and a student, one parent and two students, and even some families with grandparents in tow. So that comes to approximately 141 people attending our very first event! Very exciting.

We have a great community of staff members at our school – we had several teachers and students teachers attend and many of them helped out with parts of the event. Our librarian showed a short movie version of the book in both English and Spanish, and read the book in English. Our Principal Intern read the book in Spanish, which was very exciting for a lot of our Spanish-speaking students and families. Our PTA donated movie tickets and a copy of Where the Wild Things Are for the raffle, and my favorite local bookstore, Village Books, donated two books – Where the Wild Things Are and a bilingual (English/Spanish) book. Each family got a raffle ticket as they walked in.

Many community businesses donated food and supplies for our event, which is awesome. It is great when businesses, small and large, participate in community events such as this. They get great advertising and publicity, and we get things that we wouldn’t be able to otherwise afford. 

Building a community

Last night the ELL (English as a Learning Language) program at our school held the first of it's monthly ELL Family Nights.
No other school that I have ever worked at or even heard of has a program like this. I think it's amazing. A lot of the time, non-English speaking families want to get involved in the school but feel they cannot, because they do not know how. The language barrier is extreme, and often schools miss out on great parent involvement because of it.
The ELL family night was held in the library. We walked into the school and were greeted by the ELL Paraeducator - she is basically an "aid" - not a certificated teacher, but so dedicated to the school and her students that she organizes these events every month. We were offered nametags and directed to the library by signs in many languages.
In the library, there were three tables labeled "Spanish," one labeled "Punjabi," one "Vietnamese," and one "Russian/Ukraine." At each table, a translator. A volunteer translator. One of the Spanish translators was one of our "Office ladies," and the others were volunteers that the ELL teacher has found throughout the years.
Our school principal spoke first, welcoming the families and telling them about the school and why we have these nights. She said that often the ELL families are the most informed about the school because they come to these nights. Whenever anyone spoke, it took over twice as long as it usually would - the speaker would say a phrase, then wait for it to be translated, and the library was abuzz with all the different languages. Though there were five different languages being spoken in the room, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of community. These families care about their children's education and their futures. They are looking forward to giving their children opportunities that they might not have had growing up, and are working toward that future.
A PTA (Parent - Teacher Association) officer spoke about volunteer opportunities - the fundraiser, the vision and hearing check, and other upcoming events. She and the principal encouraged the family members in attendance to sign up to help out. Many of them did.
I am so heartened by the simple idea of these family nights. One of the most important things that our principal said to the families was that our school is proud of it's diversity. It doesn't matter if you don't speak English well enough to read a newsletter - if you want to be involved in your child's education, you should be. I am excited to be at a school that offers families opportunities to do so.