Bayta Dertick
8751 S Duffy Ave
Hometown IL 60456
708-548-6096
baytamonroy@yahoo.com

The Honorable Roland Wallace Burris
220 Hart Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator, Roland Wallace Burris:

America's students need better school meals to help them achieve academically. But the way the school meal programs are funded, it is impossible for our school districts to pay the higher cost for more fresh produce, more organic food, and less fatty cuts of meat and cheese without having to dip into the schools' budget for academic expenses. Schools shouldn't have to choose between meeting students' academic needs and providing for their nutritional needs!

Too many school cafeterias are serving low quality fast food type lunches because highly processed options like chicken nuggets, pizza, and nachos are all they can afford. Most school meal programs spend as much on labor as they do on food, with even more money going for overhead. In fact, although the government reimbursement for a free lunch served to a needy child was $2.59 in 2008-09, in most communities, only about $1 of that money is available to be spent on food, with the rest going for labor and overhead (like pest control, delivery, garbage, and utilities.) One dollar is not enough to pay for a decent lunch for a school age child, especially one who may not receive much dinner at home.

Our students need fresher, appetizing vegetables and fruit, more salad bars, more food cooked fresh each day right there in the cafeteria, not brought in frozen, wrapped in plastic and reheated. But fresh food costs far more than frozen, reheated, highly processed food, and certainly more than $1 per meal. With the cost of both food and fuel skyrocketing in the past 18 months, the usual 2-3% COLA which