Hurricane Sandy is heading directly at
us.
The governor shut down the
transportation system. The mayor had no choice but to close schools.
Yay!!!!!
Friday I noticed a stack of cold cereal
boxes by the principal's desk. He keeps them there for those days
that stretch into night- it brought to mind a story from my early
years.
I worked in a school that was the
poster child for the devastation of the South Bronx.
Mrs.Nieves, the assistant teacher in my
first grade class worked very hard surreptitiously collecting
unopened cold cereal boxes in the cafeteria while supervising
breakfast. She had to do it on the sly, the cafeteria staff
chastised her when they caught her. They followed the rule- no food
should ever be taken out of the lunchroom, unless it was inside a
belly or a garbage bag.
Throughout the week she would stockpile
the boxes in a closet in our classroom.
Friday she would take selected book
bags from the wardrobe and stuff them with her hoarded boxes.
She knew which children would eat
nothing but those boxes of cereal all weekend.
If you drive through the South Bronx
today it looks nothing like it did when I worked there in 1978. The
burnt out buildings have been replaced, the streets repaired and the
stores occupied.
But I wonder, whether it is because of
poverty, abuse or just dysfunctional family life how many children
will not eat today because the schools are closed.
Schools closed.
Yay????
Maybe, along as you ate something other
than cold cereal all weekend.
That is sad. It would be cool if apartment complexes and neighborhoods where a lot of people with very low or no incomes live would have some sort of place where kids could go to eat on non-school days. Like a soup kitchen, but super kid friendly. I read about one like that once, I think it was called Kid Kitchens or something, but they are pretty rare.
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