| Two food managers charged
Two former Prince William County school food services managers waived their rights to preliminary hearings on felony embezzlement charges Wednesday in Prince William General District Court. Valorie J. Penn, 57, of Lake Ridge, and Deborah Lee Halverson, 51, of Montclair, are charged with embezzling thousands of dollars from the schools where they worked. Both appeared in court Wednesday for preliminary hearings. In a preliminary hearing, the commonwealth must prove there is probable cause to pursue the charges for trial in Circuit Court. By waving their preliminary hearing rights, Halverson and Penn's charges will go to the October grand jury. If they are indicted Oct. 2, trials will be set in Circuit Court. Penn, who has worked at Lake Ridge Middle School since October 2000, is charged with taking $20,807.75 from the cafeteria, police and school officials said.
Maine Harvest Lunch 2007
For their first course, diners can choose from Autumn Harvest Corn & Chevre Pudding, Maple Roasted Root Vegetables or Carrot-Ginger Soup. For the main course — make that the Maine course — offerings include Italian-Inspired Pasta with Maine White Beans & Veggies, Chicken Pot Pie with Maine Mashed Potatoes or an organic Barbecue Beef Burger. Sides include Aroostook Wheat Berry Salad, Heirloom Tomato Salsa and Carrot-Raisin Slaw. And for dessert, the mouth-watering lineup includes Pumpkin Snack Cakes, Wild Blueberry Cobbler and Maine Apple Gingerbread. If you think this sounds like a bistro menu, think again. This is a school lunch menu — yes, you read that right — school lunch, better known for such classics as rectangular pizzas, salami Italians on hamburger buns and sloppy Joes (or, as Adam Sandler would sing, "slop, sloppy Joes." But there was nary a sloppy Joe in sight — no hoagies and grinders, either — as Bangor chef Cheryl Wixson led a class for school food service workers last week at the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association's Common Ground Education Center in Unity.
Schools contend with unpaid school lunch bills
UNDATED (AP) - In Arkansas, as in other states, many public school districts are having problems picking up the tab for children who don't qualify for the federal school lunch program and whose parents don't send money with them to school for lunch. Last term, unpaid cafeteria charges in the Conway public schools, for instance, reached $14,000. By the end of the term, only about half of that had been collected. A food services group is looking for ways to resolve the ongoing problem for public schools in the state. Some want to merge the free-lunch and reduced-price programs. The Arkansas School Food Services Association says the state could pick up the cost, estimating an additional $3 million-a-year expense. (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.
A Life-long Passion for Food
While some school children enjoy skateboarding, video games, or dancing, Gino Arcuri always loved cooking. Gino grew up in New York where he worked in his father's deli. “My father [Guy] owned a deli and I used to love going there and helping when I was very little. I got the love for food from him. He taught me the way. He was a hard worker and a smart man," says Gino. “He was known as the cheesecake king and because of him I love making cheesecake. The last thing we did together was make a metropolitan cheesecake." With his initial interest in food inspired by his father, Gino pursued his love when his family moved to Florida. “When I was 18 we moved to Florida and I started working at hotels. We did a lot of banqueting and one of our biggest events was the Harley Davidson convention," says Gino.
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