Tag Archives: del norte

Education, Videos

“Breakfast After the Bell” – Making Sure ALL Students Have Access to Food

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5th grade teacher of Mary Peacock Elementary School Paige Thompson (center) is one of two teachers in the Del Norte County Unified School District taking on the “Breakfast After the Bell” initiative in its pilot phase.

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” Even though there are people who would look at that statement and dispute without hesitation, tearing down breakfast’s ranking on the nutritional hierarchy and claiming any other time of the day is “the most important,” few can argue with the simple truth that it is of great importance nonetheless. Also, it’s breakfast – there shouldn’t really be a debate on breakfast.

More importantly, breakfast is important for children. Going to school every day with progressively developing and impressionable minds while constantly taking in new information can be very demanding, and students – from elementary grades to graduating off to college – need to keep up their energy. It’s one of the things that never change about the school system. The brain is a muscle constantly at work, constantly exposed to new concepts, new ideas, new developments, and in order for it to function properly, it absolutely requires nutrition. Nutrition at the beginning of the day gives students the start they need to endure the rest of the day. But breakfast isn’t just about having it in order to merely function. Any source can give you any number of reasons why breakfast is so important and the additional benefits it grants: increased concentration, reduction of fatigue, amplified awareness of proportion control and nutritional moderation, and a decrease in the risk of illnesses. Skipping breakfast, on the other hand, has demonstrated numerous negative effects, especially against young school children: diminishing mental performance in class, increasing the likelihood of poor food choices throughout the day (which has been shown to extend into long term circumstances), and cuts the body off from attaining important nutrition. Everything points to the importance of students eating breakfast. Unfortunately, despite the attempts of establishment in which many schools serve breakfast to students in the early morning, breakfast accessibility is still an issue across the nation. One in five children live in households facing food insecurity, leaving roughly 13 million children across the country who go to school hungry with little to resolve it. It is a much more widespread issue than most people tend to believe. Lucy Melcher, director of advocacy and government relations for the nonprofit Share Our Strength, running the No Kid Hungry campaign, has said, “There are food insecure and hungry kids in every congressional district and every demographic[.] Food insecurity is a family that has enough money to buy groceries three out of four weeks; it’s a mom skipping dinner; it’s having to choose between buying groceries and paying rent.” There is such an unfortunate discrepancy. As said before, schools do indeed attempt to serve breakfast. But usually, breakfast is served early in the morning before classes. Not only does this create issues for students with transportation issues who do are unable to attend early, but it means that students will have to wake up even earlier than the already dreaded early hours shown to produce negative effects. But across the country, teachers have been taking up a simple but effective movement to combat this problem. Already it has been reaping positive changes, and two teachers have introduced it to the Del Norte County Unified School District.

Students participating in the Breakfast After the Bell program eating breakfast in class. They are provided food and are allowed to save the food for later in the day.
For now, these are known as “pilot” sessions, determining whether the program, known as Breakfast After The Bell, is effective. Breakfast After the Bell is an initiative pushing for a simple method to assist food insecurity issues. Simply, teachers are able to provide breakfast foods in the beginning of class. Some may have their class open a few minutes earlier so that students who arrive early are able to eat, though teachers are often able to simply start class slowly as the students are eating. By giving them the free time to simply eat and socialize, however, they are able to begin the day on a note of low tension and social development. “The idea for piloting Breakfast After the Bell in Del Norte came from a collaborative group of community partners coming together to discuss how we can increase students’ access to food in schools. Breakfast after the Bell is a nationally recognized program that has been shown as one of the most effective ways to boost breakfast participation in schools. With the help and support of Deborah Kravitz, the Nutrition Services Director for Del Norte Unified School District, we were able to pilot the program in two classrooms at Mary Peacock this year,” said Ryan Kober of Building Healthy Communities, who has been a big part of helping Breakfast After The Bell in its piloting stages, and who gave Redwood Voice the opportunity to create a video for it, as seen above. We interviewed Paige Thompson, a 5th grade teacher at Mary Peacock Elementary in charge of one of the two piloting classes testing the Breakfast After The Bell system. First and foremost, the Breakfast After The Bell program easily accomplishes its goal of making sure that every student has food. “I like knowing that my kids ate that day,” said Thompson, which in itself reflects the effectiveness of the program. Being able to provide food and knowing for sure that students are eating helps to eliminate food insecurity during school, and she goes on to explain that of her classroom, only 2 students do not eat every day – one of which is due to medical reasons, the other simply out of preference who will eat some days but not others, but who still has complete access to the food – allowing ease of flexibility for students with different preferences or necessities. However, Thompson goes on to explain that the food itself is far from the only positive effective reaped from this experience. “I was excited about having breakfast in my classroom because it creates a really interesting social dynamic, and it makes my students feel comfortable asking for food later in the day when they’re hungry. It creates a really great sharing environment where, if somebody doesn’t want their orange they know they can offer it to somebody else.” Although, the teacher isn’t the only one to notice the benefits of breakfast in class. We were able to interview a few of the students as well, who each gave very interesting ideas on what they liked about Breakfast After The Bell. Along with students knowing they had access to food if they weren’t able to bring food themselves that day, students enjoyed being able to be in a smaller, quieter place where they were able to talk to their friends. They claimed that it was a better experience than that of the Multi-Purpose Room, which was typically full of students and made for a much noisier environment. The attention of this from students shows that it would be greatly beneficial to overstimulated or overwhelmed students, as well as shy or quieter students who may develop social skills more positively by being around their friends and classmates, rather than a more disorganized room with many sounds and senses firing off, and instead have a more stabilized, calm environment before starting their day.
With Breakfast After The Bell, students have the opportunity to eat and either socialize with friends or relax before the beginning of the school day.

Overall, the Breakfast After The Bell program speaks for itself as to why it’s a nationally recognized program. It exceeds in its goal in making sure every student has access to food, promotes positive social dynamics involving sharing, closer social development, and to some degrees even self-care as students take time to themselves before undergoing school for the day – and all the while, it’s an easy system that all teachers could fluidly work into their schedule, elementary and beyond. Perhaps that is just one of the many reasons this program has already proved to be so successful across the nation. It is taking a simple, small action to step towards a more inclusive space, and in turn grows into something effective and powerful that benefits everyone. It’s a win-win situation that anyone can step up towards. References (2) BetterHealthChannel: Breakfast The Denver Post: More than 13 million kids in this country go to school hungry

Education, LGBTQ, Videos

Transgender Awareness Month: Transcending Ignorance

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Redwood Voice’s Primary November Project, a video documenting the importance of Transgender Awareness Month in our local community of Del Norte.

We have reached the end of November. Families have come together to give thanks and nurture one another. They are unified – they are, quite simply, together.

And as they are together, they reconnect and recollect. They speak of the time that has passed since last seeing one another, they remember what came before this moment of celebration and connection.

There are many people who don’t have that luxury this time of the year. There are many people who must remember a much darker part of their lives – some, the loss of others, while the remaining remember how far they’ve come through adversity and hardship, remembering how hard they had to fight or hide to simply live to see these holidays.

Thanksgiving holds its fair share of connotations – for better, for worse, for all in between. It can be a spectacular time: a genuine, lovely gathering of family and friends. It can be, for perhaps a majority others, a grey time: those detached from their family, or even completely separated; those who spend the holidays alone; those who spend the holidays remembering those they once spent them with, but now live in times long since past. And of course, this isn’t even beginning to delve into the generational traumas of which the “American Thanksgiving” are rooted into and the atrocities that have taken place to build its cruel beginnings.

Regardless of how powerfully it encompasses this month, Thanksgiving is simply a mixed time. In a sense, perhaps the holiday it has evolved into is a time to ignore the traumas of the past – but ignorance does not lead to healing.

Ignoring a wound does not let that wound heal, but instead infect into something far worse. Even in writing this article, staying at a neutral, objective point, the mere act of talking about the negatives of this time of the year will surely outrage others or be deemed “controversial.” But it is simply true. Thanksgiving covers the attempts of many who wish to speak out. The Native American community wants the past to be visible without any strings attached, to spread awareness and knowledge of the wrongdoings of the settlers and the crimes committed against them. There is even a holiday the day after Thanksgiving known as “Native American Day” to amplify this awareness, and the entire month of November holds the monthly observance of “National Native American Month.”

Just as there are widely known observances, there are those buried under or unknown altogether. The one I present today is one that has been utterly erased to a point that few outside of those affected even consider its possibility of existence – an observance that, upon Googling, you won’t even find the name of:

Transgender Awareness Month.

Transgender Awareness Month – a month to memorialize the victims of transphobic violence and raise awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide.

November is a time when many members of the Transgender Community, as well as allies, reflect on pivotal historical moments that have fundamentally built the movement. But these moments come not from success without labor – they are times in which the community has overcome struggle, times in which we have climbed from the dirt placed on us to keep us down, buried, unseen, only to then blossom forth. One of the most notable instances of these happens to be Rita Hester’s murder on November 20th, 1998, due to her gender identity. This sparked outrage among the trans community, inspiring them to fight harder for a brighter future where we could live in a world that did not want to kill those who wanted to happily live as themselves. That’s why November 20th now marks Transgender Day of Remembrance. It is not a celebration, it is not an event of pride – it is a day marking loss. It is candlelit vigils as we read the names of those we have lost to violence, those we have lost to hatred against people being themselves.

Rita Hester, a transgender African American woman killed for expressing her gender identity on November 20th, 1998. A candlelit vigil was held for her attracting nearly 250 people.

We remember this pain. Many must live with it for the rest of their lives. Many suppress who they are to hide this pain – but ignoring the wound never heals it.

I’m sure many reading this may even be hearing about it for the first time. There are very few resources out there to for Transgender Awareness Month, and the closest our community has come has been the establishment of Transgender Awareness Week. It seems that our mourning and visibility must be cut short.

The purpose of Transgender Awareness Month is to educate those who know not of trans issues, of trans struggles, of where our movement originates – of where our movement is leading us. Its purpose is to step out and speak with those who want to learn, and we are more than willing. We know that there are allies who hope to provide as much assistance as they wish, but oftentimes they simply fall back. This month is here to invigorate them and others, to fight hatred with knowledge, to present who we are, what we’ve been through, and where we’re going now.

In Del Norte County, I cannot possibly overemphasize the importance of this.

I have met with a few fellow trans members of Del Norte to discuss its climate and why it is so absolutely crucial to have these conversations – why we need to be seen, why we need to be heard, why we need to be simply affirmed and understood as living beings. We are your neighbors, your fellow community. We want nothing more than to be accepted as we are, and those kind enough to do so inspire us to only further march with our message.


“Those moments of affirmation from your neighbors and friends here are too rare.”
– Jacob Patterson (she/her), local queer activist. 

“The world is a better, brighter place for you daring to show who you really are.”
– Sam Bradshaw (he/they/she), True North Youth Organizer.

“We exist. We need to be accepted.”
– Wyatt (he/him), Local Youth.

So I present all of this before you – this video, my words, our collective work – on the final day of November, near the month’s end. Why? Because I’m sure this is the first you’re hearing of it. But personally, I don’t believe there should be “designated times” to accept, love, and support others. So take this message as you will. Love your neighbors, learn about them, accept them, even if you don’t fully understand their lifestyles, and if that is the case, ask – talk to them. We are more than willing to explain who we are, more than willing to be seen, because for too long we have been in hiding. Let us all be unified and, quite simply, together.

esent all of this before you – this video, my words, our collective work – on the final day of November, near the month’s end. Why? Because I’m sure this is the first you’re hearing of it. But personally, I don’t believe there should be “designated times” to accept, love, and support others. So take this message as you will. Love your neighbors, learn about them, accept them, even if you don’t fully understand their lifestyles, and if that is the case, ask – talk to them. We are more than willing to explain who we are, more than willing to be seen, because for too long we have been in hiding. Let us all be unified and, quite simply, together.

Let us look forward to a time when the only Remembrance we need is to remember how long ago the trans community was forced to combat violence, and how it has now been reborn into a time of cherishment and acceptance.

Education, Videos

Native American Inclusion in Del Norte County Schools

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We visited elementary and middle school students at the Northern California Indian Development Council’s after-school program to learn how inclusive Del Norte County Schools are for our Native American students as well as how our schools might be hurting them and what they would like to see changed. Students shared stories of personal experiences they have had with classmates and teachers as well as offered solutions to how we can help build a better learning environment.

Videos

Del Norte Youth #GetLOUD for Local Candidate’s Forum

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On Thursday, October 20th, candidates for the District 1 Del Norte County Board of Supervisor’s seat and the District 4 Del Norte County School Board seat will come together at Mary Peacock to answer questions on topics ranging from youth homelessness to bullying. One might be surprised to find that many of the passionate hosts of the forum are not yet of voting age.

The nonpartisan candidate’s forum was designed by youth, organized by youth, and will be run by youth with guidance from True North Organizing and partners with Building Healthy Communities, Redwood Voice, the Opportunity Youth Initiative, and College of the Redwoods.

“We as youth have a responsibility to not only represent the issues we care about, but also have the responsibility to represent ourselves in this new age,” says organizer Kevin Vue, age 18, “youth have problems too, we suffer and our peers suffer, we would like to see how [the candidates] are going to address our problems.” Organizer Alexxa Herrera, age 16, adds, “This forum also tells people that youth do care about what goes on in our community. Because we care enough to put this on, [the community] should care enough to listen and vote.”

The youth organizers selected the Del Norte County School Board and Del Norte County Board of Supervisors to create the opportunity to ask the candidates questions around decisions they will make that directly impact youth.

College of the Redwoods professor, Will Meriweather, will also be providing brief information on the many propositions that local voters will have on their ballots this year.

For the Del Norte County School Board candidates, Judie Cordts, Charlaine Mazzei, and Roger Daley, the youth selected questions regarding LGBTQ+ issues, bullying, supporting minority students transitioning to higher education, and updates to Del Norte County Schools. For the Board of Supervisors, Roger Gitlin and Kathryn Murray, the youth have selected questions around youth homelessness and shelters, mental health resources, businesses, and other major challenges for youth living in Del Norte County.

The entire community is encouraged to attend to learn more about their candidates and how they are responding to the issues important to our youth. The forum will be held Thursday, October 20th from 6:00pm-8:00pm at the Mary Peacock Gym. Voter registration, childcare, and translation will be available.