MICHELLE O TO GO: Food trucks deliver school lunches to students during summer break

PAUL, Minn. – Government-sponsored food trucks will be stalking students this summer with the goal of giving out thousands of “healthy” free lunches officials don’t trust parents to provide.

Officials at St. Paul public schools recently announced they’re working with the local food bank Second Harvest to dispatch a mobile food truck to expand locations offering students free lunches during the summer. Last year the district supplied 71 locations, and the truck will help to add another 10 to 15 in 2015, KSTP reports.

The district’s director of nutrition services, Stacy Koppen, said the truck will drive around to different locations between 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. to help feed the city’s needy youngsters. The truck will track down students at “spots like suggested basketball courts or fields where kids like to play,” according to the news site.

The very expensive-looking specially rigged step van features a billboard with grinning teens alongside the message “Kids and teens: Get your free meals here.” The district apparently didn’t offer the details on how the new program is financed, or how much the truck cost, and the news station didn’t bother to ask. School officials said the truck will be manned by volunteers.

Koppen said the district serves 29,000 lunches a day during the school year, but only 6,000 a day during the summer, so officials reasoned a truck is necessary to make sure students aren’t starving.

“Time and again, we such a steep decline that we wonder, ‘Where are these children going? Are they getting the healthy, nutritious food they need for their health and academic success?’” Koppen told KTSP.

Here I am clipping coupons, reading sales flyers to find the cheapest food and cleaning products including TP I can. And always looking for ways to up my Kroger gas points so we can afford to put gas in the cars. I don’t drive mine much, but the main car uses at least 3 tanks a month, that includes the gas for the lawn mower.

We have to conserve data usage on our phones to keep the bill as low as possible. Watch how much hot water we use, etc as we are fixed income.

And the feds are giving free food to kids that get FOOD stamps. Free phones and internet. To illegals too. And they want the Illegals to VOTE. Yep, vote for more freebies.

I'm on a fixed income, too, and have rewritten my budget so that my expenditures don't tap into my very finite savings. FWIW, I've found ways, but a lot of the foods and supplies I've used as part of the budget are increasing in price. I've got a surplus of most things I need (clothing, home furnishings, house maintenance etc) so I'm cutting retail purchases to about zero.

A few things that have worked for me:

1. Dollar General has some good food staples and household/hygiene products very reasonably priced

2. A local food chain that caters to the immigrant population has some good bargains on the basics.

3. Are you a senior citizen? Around here, the Cleveland bus is only $1 per ride for Seniors. When I'm so inclined, I can go downtown and a lot of other places for a meal or whatever, parking near my house and not having gas or parking fees. You might have some similar options in your area.

4. There are some discount chains around here that have very inexpensive DVDs and books. I accumulated enough so that there's always something to read or watch.

5. Next step...giving up cable TV.

At least where I live, we get bilked thousands each year in property taxes (and on a relatively inexpensive house).

No way to escape “teaching” the budding Bolsheviks, trannies, and illegal aliens. The bathrooms became “integrated” at least a year ago.

Moving out of the city is nearly impossible for us.

We the hardworking get to support one of the worst school districts in the country, and we don’t even get good roads out of the property taxes. It’s like driving in Beirut around here.

We are Rural West TN. No buses not even a taxi. Little shopping, and what there is is more thank Kroger’s.

Basics of bread, milk, cereal and eggs are the most bought. Cleaning supplies I went back to basics of bleach, vinegar and Comet. Found his denture cleaner does the toilets with a little white vinegar just as well as those expensive cleaners. Laundry soap is bought when it’s real dirt cheap. Kroger’s had Sun for 99 cents if you bought 4, I bought 8. That is a year’s supply.

Like you we have an excess of things, hubby does most home repairs even at 75. He does the lawn weed control. We downsized 2 yrs ago and got rid of a lot of excess furniture. We did invest in good windows and one of those hot water tankless units. That has cut down cost of gas.

We cut the eating out to just ANV and BD’s. Then I get gift cards from Kroger’s that go toward gas points. We had enough this month to get a $1 off a tank for each of our cars. I don’t drive mine much. He fills the gas can then too.

Clothes come out of Salvation Army or yard sales. I grow some of our food. This constant rain has hammered that this year.

His daughter gave us Netflix for Christmas 4 yrs ago so that solved the movie situation. We combined all our phone and net. No home phone just cell. With a zip line for the computer. She has us on her PRIME account with Amazon and that saves shipping cost.

We could go to basic cable if he didn’t have to have all that sports stuff. We are just to far from the source to do antenna service.

I invested in real high quality sheets for the bed at the Military base when the supplier came in. $40 for any size 1400 count, like silk sheets that will out last us.

The only things that need replacing on a annual basis are shoes, socks and under things for both of us, I do that when they put them on sale and I have $10 off coupons.

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