Monday was the start of National School Lunch week and there was something to celebrate at Summit Street School in Essex Junction – a new milk contract that will provide 135 Vermont schools with milk that supports the health of our children, local farms and the environment.The Agency of Agriculture joined Vermont FEED, the Vermont Food Service Directors association to announce a new contract with Garelick Farms, based in Franklin, MA, that will provide schools with the choices they’ve been looking for, milk that comes from Vermont farms in 8 or 10 ounce recyclable plastic bottles and a chocolate milk formula with no high fructose corn syrup.”The sugar content of flavored milk can be a concern but this formula from Garelick farms, takes out the high fructose corn syrup and reduces the overall sugar content. They’ve also made sure kids still like it, and will drink it. It’s a good way to get more milk and more nutrients into our kids,” said Diane Bothfeld, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture.The Vermont Food Service Directors Association (FDA) represents 135 schools in Vermont and has worked for nine years to find a milk supplier that would meet their requirements.”Due to the ability of the Food Service Directors Association to negotiate a competitive bid process and to distribute through our local food distributor we were able to bring Garelick into the picture in Vermont where it did not exist before,” said Bob Clifford, Food Service Director for Chittenden Central Supervisory Union and Co-Director of FDA.The new milk deal also provides greater support for our Vermont dairy farmers. Last year school milk contained about 40 percent Vermont milk, now 85 to 90 percent of the school milk comes from Vermont farms. The switch to Vermont milk is representative of the growing Farm to School efforts around the state. Abbie Nelson, Director of Vermont FEED (Food Education Every Day) said, ‘More and more of the food in the 52,000 lunches served at Vermont schools every day comes from Vermont.’Deputy Secretary Bothfeld addressed third graders at Summit Street school about the importance of supporting local farmers and being healthy. ‘And you know what is really important, that when the milk tastes good and it is the right size, you drink more and I like that because I work with dairy farmers in Vermont and every time you guys drink more milk, they get sales and everyone does real well.”The new contract also allows schools to switch from non-recyclable wax coated cardboard containers to the recyclable plastic. “Recycling is good because if you just threw stuff away all the time it would take up the whole entire world,” said Oliver MacGillivary, a Summit Street student.It seems this switch is a win all around, thanks to the efforts of the Food Service Directors Association.Source: Vermont Agency of Agriculture
Topics : Pyongyang has also taken issue over defectors in the South sending propaganda leaflets into North Korea.Several defector-led groups regularly send back flyers carrying critical messages of Kim Jong Un, often together with food, $1 bills, mini radios and USB sticks containing South Korean dramas and news.The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, said the demolition of the liaison office was the “first stage action” in its “holy war” aimed at punishing Seoul authorities for turning a blind eye to the defector’s campaign.”It was an iron hammer of stern punishment meted out to those who were having empty dreams while pursuing concealed hostile policy,” it said in a commentary.The newspaper also ran a series of articles and photos carrying angry ordinary citizens calling for retaliation and vowing to send anti-South leaflets over the border South Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator will hold talks with officials in Washington on Thursday amid flaring tensions with North Korea after Pyongyang blew up an inter-Korean liaison office and threatened military action.Lee Do-hoon’s unannounced trip came days after North Korea blew up a joint liaison office in Kaesong, near the South Korean border and declared an end to dialogue with the South.Lee is expected to hold consultations with US officials, including Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun who had led denuclearization negotiations with North Korea, Seoul’s foreign ministry said.
Lee and Biegun will “assess the current situation on the Korean peninsula and discuss responses,” the ministry said in a statement.South Korean television showed Lee arriving at Washington’s Dulles International Airport on Wednesday evening, where he declined to comment to reporters.Pyongyang has increasingly snubbed Seoul’s calls for engagement as efforts to restart inter-Korean economic projects stalled due to international sanctions designed to rein in the North’s nuclear and missile programs.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, on Wednesday criticized South Korean President Moon Jae-in for failing to implement a 2018 peace accord, saying Moon “put his neck into the noose of pro-US flunkeyism.”
Athletes run during the Men’s Marathon athletics event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on August 21, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / Adrian DENNISKampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Chief de Mission of Uganda’s team at the just concluded Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia, Beatrice Ayikoru has called on Government to establish programs that motivates athletes to stay in Uganda and avoid disappearing abroad.In an interview, Ayikoru who is also the general secretary of the Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) said since most Ugandan athletes are from poor families and backgrounds, when they go abroad they think that’s the opportunity of a life time.She also says sports in the country lacks motivating with no facilities, like swimming pools, squash courts and gyms and no equipment like rackets which are not made in Uganda and are very expensive.During the Games in Australia five athletes Regan Ssimbwa, Nasir Bashir (boxing), Halima Namboozo (table tennis) and two weightlifters Irene Kasubo and Kalidi Butuusa disappeared.Uganda won three gold medals, two bronze and one silver at the common wealth games, with Joshua Cheptegei winning two gold medals in the 5000 and 10,000 race and Stella Chesang won another gold in the 10,000 meters women’s race. Merciline Chelangat also got a bronze in the 10,000 meters and Solomon Mutai got a Silver medal while Juma Miro won bronze in a weight category. Uganda was ranked 15th.Ayikoru also says the other issue is the welfare of athletes. She says a proper arrangement should be in place to pay athletes, even at a time when they are just starting, adding that the structures of talent identification should be established earlier and made sustainable, saying there are thousands of Ugandans who cannot all go out. Ayikoru said she hopes that the athletes will return back to Uganda.It is not the first time Ugandan athletes have disappeared abroad. Last year, three Ugandan boxers David Ayiti, Geoffrey Kakeeto and African welterweight champion Muzamiru Kakande.who participated in the 2017 AIBA World Championships in Hamburg, Germany, did not return home.***URNShare on: WhatsApp