http://www.lakewalesnews.com/articles/2009/01/10/business/doc4967c1061ae51275907822.txt

Feds to buy $26 million of juice

Published: Saturday, January 10, 2009 9:09 AM EST

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to purchase more than $26 million of orange juice from Florida Citrus Mutual, the citrus conglomerate announced Friday.

The juice will be used “for child nutrition and other domestic food assistance programs,” said Andrew Meadows, spokesman for the Lakeland based citrus operation.

According to Meadows, Florida Citrus Mutual asked the USDA to purchase a significant amount of orange juice in September of 2008 to help reduce inventories and boost grower returns.

In its request, Mutual told the USDA of the rising production costs, lower prices and mammoth inventories now facing Florida citrus growers, Meadows said.

The USDA commitment equates to about 7.3 million gallons.

“In addition to helping one of the country’s great agriculture industries, this significant USDA purchase will provide a healthy beverage for students, mothers and their children across the United States,” said Michael W. Sparks, executive VP/CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual. “We would like to thank Secretary Schafer.”

United States Rep. Adam Putnam was “instrumental in this process,” Meadows added.

The USDA purchases high-quality food products each year for a variety of uses including the national school lunch program, the school breakfast program, the summer food service program, the nutrition program for the elderly and the emergency food assistance program.

The USDA will survey potential recipients to determine how much product will be accepted, and then it will seek the lowest overall cost through a public bid process.

The Florida citrus industry creates a $9.3 billion annual economic impact, employing nearly 76,000 people, and covering more than 576,000 acres. Founded in 1948 and currently representing nearly 8,000 grower members, Florida Citrus Mutual is the state’s largest citrus grower organization.

For information, visit www.flcitrusmutual.com.

The PUBLIC school system should do away with school breakfast programs. School breakfast programs are nothing more than welfare programs. Personally, I have never seen give away breakfast programs in America's private schools. - Millet

As I don't understand English perfectly and don't know USA very well, I don't understand what you say.
You mean Public school might stop to help people because PRIVATE schools don't??!
It sounds like " We must not help poor people because rich don't need help.".

Indeed, I hope I am wrong and that I mist some thing.

Sylvain.

Given that even the most inexpensive private schools are not cheap the families of the children that attend such institutions can well afford to feed them breakfast.

My daughter's school on the other hand has more than half of the kids on free or reduced price lunch. I don't know how many of them also take advantage of the school breakfast but I suspect it's a fair number. Some of those families probably could feed them a decent breakfast but for the rest the meal at school literally is the best meal they'll get that day. I've seen this from watching the kids at the school, rec league soccer, my wife's Girl Scout troop, and other areas.

A child that is preoccupied with getting something to eat is not going to be able to do well in class and will quite likely make it more difficult for the other kids to learn as well.

.....Alan.

The sad part of the whole situation is, that the American people are more and more starting to rely on the government to take care of them, instead of taking care of themselves. In our fathers time families took care of families, and it was public shame to rely on the government's hand outs. I doubt that today's families cannot afford to feed themselves a simple breakfast. How much does cereal, toast, a banana and milk cost??????? - Millet

ASK NOT WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU, ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY.

But Millet,nobody wants to be poor! We all would like to be rich!
How can you imagine that the poors are poor in purpose???
You say they are guilty but do they have the choice?
I hope you never become poor because you would suffer twice more than the one who is born poor. Because you cannot imagine it, you cannot even think it is possible.
But it is!

Sylvain, 99.99999999999999999999999999 percent of people in America can certainly afford a simple breakfast. I think their parents are just too lazy to fix it, heck let some one else pay for their children's breakfast. But all is not lost, at lest we can count on PUBLIC school teachers insuring that no one ever loses in life, when they pass out their white participation ribbons. - Millet

Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. John F. Kennedy

Millet, I know where you are coming from and I mostly agree with you about the lunch programs not being open to every child. Our United States Constitution doesn't promise anybody a free public education either, that has been written into individual states constitutions.

We are suppose to have freedom of religion not freedom from religion and I believe its an unborn baby not a freedom of choice....

A little off subject of forum but agree with you!!

Let me guess millet, you think they should do away with social security too. What about Medicaid?

I do not begrudge any child a meal who needs a meal. Unfortunately, the majority of those children sitting down for breakfast at school have cell phones, DS players, Ipods, and when they get home from school, they play on their Wii or Playstation (or both) until mom and/or dad gets home.

In the mean time, my kids don't understand when I tell them that these things are not in our budget. A sense of entitlement is being bred into the younger generation. When you are trying to raise your children to work hard for what they want, and they are continuously bombarded with the opposite message... well, lets just say it is a constant battle.

Barbara