 Nutrition • Three-year-old
Dante Velez enjoys an apple served during
the scheduled afternoon snack. Tracey
Roman / Daily Forty-Niner
 Preparation • Elliott
Cowens puts together the afternoon treat
of apples, rice cakes, cream cheese and
milk. Tracey Roman / Dail y Forty-Niner
Patterson
Center ensures children’s nutritional
needs
By
Kimberly Nares
Daily Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
When
the Isabel Patterson Child Development
Center opened in 1975, children enrolled
used to have to bring their own lunches
to school.
However, for the past 23 years children have been given nutritional meals thanks
to a grant from the Department of Education Child and Adult Food Care Program.
The Center’s portion of the grant has been renewed again this year and
will be able to provide nutritional meals for the 250 children enrolled in
the center.
“The meals are prepared fresh on the site and do not consist of candy,
sodas or any junk food,” said Rhonda Marikos, director of the
Center.
They
also do not serve pork, beef, punch or
hot dogs. On the days the staff serves
chicken, turkey or tuna, they also serve
alternative meals for vegetarian children.
The program ensures that while the children
are in the Center’s care, all of
their nutritional needs are met. This
includes meals that contain food from
all areas of the nutritional guidelines.
According
to Marikos, the Center receives between
$25,000 and $30,000 a year, based on
enrollment numbers. This year it received
$29,000. This allows the Center to provide
snacks and a lunch to every child enrolled.
The cost of the nutrition program is
approximately $37,000. The rest of the
cost is included in the fees for enrollment
of each child.
The
Center’s mission, according to
its Web site, is “to ensure that
no student parent is denied a higher
education due to a lack of affordable
childcare.””
It
offers care for infants through second-grade
children. The Center has full-day care
for younger children and before- and
after- school programs for kindergarteners
through second graders. Low-income students
can apply for financial assistance. The
Center gives priority enrollment to students
of CSULB and then to its staff and then
finally alumni and the community.
The
Child and Adult Food Care program has
an important role in the state of California.
According
to the Department of Education Web site,
the child care food program’s objective
is to improve the diets of children 13
and under and help them develop good
eating habits.
It gives money to child
care centers, schools and adult care
centers to ensure they provide meals
that are nutritionally balanced. Last
year the Food Program helped serve 199,207,770
meals in the state of California, 67,365,654
of those meals were served in Los Angeles
County. |
