July 2015
NEW CONTEST! Can you find the fake ad? See page 3 for more info
Zoe Wynn goes for it off the high dive at the Fremont Aquatic Complex.
By Heidi Hurst Due to federal government requirements and rising food costs, Mesa Public Schools breakfast and lunch prices will rise slightly in the new school year. Student meals will be 10 cents to 25 cents higher per meal, beginning in the 2015-16 school year. School meal prices are contingent on the Paid Lunch Equity requirement, to which any district that participates in the National School Lunch Program must adhere. School districts must annually evaluate their weighted average paid-lunch price. If that price is below the amount the district receives in federal reimbursement on a free meal served to a qualifying stu-
dent, it must be adjusted accordingly. Many households have felt the pinch of rising food costs this year, and so has the district. According to Loretta Zullo, food and nutrition director, the cost of food in her department increased about 5 percent over the past year. This, coupled with the federal requirement to increase the amount of fruits and vegetables served at breakfast and lunch, has also prompted the need to increase meal prices. School meals are still an excellent way to ensure students are healthy and alert for learning in the classroom. “School meals remain the best value option for a healthy meal for children,” ...continues on page 6
Eye doctor on Nepal: ‘It really impacts you when you see how devastated it is’ By Ken Abramczyk
Earthquakes in Nepal this spring killed more than 8,000 people, injured another 19,000, and destroyed the homes of hundreds of thousands of residents. In mid-May, Dr. Pravin Dugel, an ophthalmologist with Retinal Consultants of Arizona, headed Dr. Pravin Dugel, left, talks with a community doctor at a to Nepal and witnessed makeshift triage center in a street after the second earththe chaos, devastation and quake in Nepal. destruction of the nation. While there, “The streets are lined with people, he offered humanitarian aid and assist- because they don’t know where to ed with retinal surgery with a team of go,” said Dugel, whose firm has offices ...continues on page 4 trauma surgeons. PERRY ATHANASON
Meal prices to change for 2015-16 Mesa school year
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