"We'll be required to serve more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains," said director of food service Terry Gooch. "But the biggest adjustment will be to meet the minimum and maximum calorie guidelines set by the USDA (US Department of Agriculture) according the grade levels."

The new calorie requirements will mean different meals for elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. Because of our District's junior high grade alignment, Food Service will have to offer one meal for Kindergarten through fifth-grade students at each elementary and another meal for the sixth-graders. The same issue will exist for seventh- and eighth-graders at each junior high and the ninth-graders at each junior high.

The price of an elementary lunch will rise from $1.85 to $2.00 and the price of a secondary lunch will rise from $2.10 to $2.25. The price for students paying a reduced fee will remain the same at $.40 at both elementary and secondary schools.

Speaking of ECISD's Food Service Department, each year this group organizes a District-wide food drive -known as Cans for Kids - to support the West Texas Food Bank through the summer months. For two weeks schools and departments hold a friendly competition to see who can collect the most canned food and non-perishable items. Students who make donations are entered into a drawing for some amazing prizes. Here is a list of the winners:

• Sebastian Ortega, Cameron, Coby Portable AM/FM CD Player
• Alexis Contee, Hays, Coby Portable AM/FM CD Player
• Isabela Armend, Travis, Coby Portable AM/FM CD Player
• Shane Garcia, Travis, 20" BMX Bicycle
• Ethan Lara, Hays, 20" BMX Bicycle
• Vanessa, Casas, Cameron, 20" BMX Bicycle
• Shelby Aguinaga, Lamar EEC, Xbox 360 with Kinect
• Zenaida Ibarra, Zavala, Laptop Computer
• Keegan Gray, Bowie Jr. High, Ipod Shuffle
• Antonio Castaneda, OHS, Coby Portable AM/FM CD Player
• Destiny Gray, OHS, Laptop Computer
• Travis Elementary School - 2,691 lbs.
• Hays Elementary School - 1,402 lbs.
• Cameron Elementary School -- 1,711 lbs.
• Odessa High School - 822 lbs.
• Ector Junior High - 211 lbs.  

Food Service supervisor Linda Robertson poses with one of the student winners in front of the food collected during this year's Cans for Kids drive.

This year the food drive brought in 18,558 pounds of food and a check for $277.00. In its nine year history Cans for Kids has now donated more than 220,000 pounds of food to the food bank.

During the month of March, Permian High School's Students in Philanthropy class collected used cell phones and accessories, partnering with the non-profit group Cell Phones for Soldiers. Students and faculty were asked to help troops call home by contributing phones and related items. Collection boxes were decorated and put in five different locations on campus for phones to be donated.

Permian's group collected nearly 200 phones, chargers, and batteries. One of the students that worked to package the phones, Meredith Smiley, was pleased to honor the troops with the help provided. "Everyone has old cell phones, and it was a wonderful experience to know that we are helping the men and women overseas just by donating old devices," she said.

Funds raised from the recycling of cellular phones are used to purchase prepaid international calling cards. For every donated phone valued at just $5, Cell Phones for Soldiers is able to provide two and a half hours of free talk time to deployed troops.

Permian High School's SIP group, advised by sponsor Jannine Seymour, has been listed as an official drop site partner for the program in Odessa. The student group is in its ninth year at Permian High School, and is a product of the Abell-Hanger Foundation's commitment to educating youth in volunteer opportunities available through non-profit organizations.

Pictured are the fifteen young ladies in PHS SIP this year with approximately a third of the phones collected in the drive. Yes, there are young men in SIP, too, but at the time of the picture they happened to be elsewhere working on another project!

On April 14 seven students from Noel's N.A.S.A. (Noel's Advanced Science and Arithmetic) team competed in the 27th annual TAME (Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering) Texas State Math and Science Competition at Texas A&M University. Based on their performance at the South Plains Math and Science Competition in February they were invited to be part of the West Texas Team. The West Texas Team consisted of Students from Noel, El Paso and Presidio. Students competed in TEKS based grade level math and science testing. They also competed in a mixed grade level team engineering design challenge.

Team picture: Front- Mr. Vann. Row 2(L-R)- Karissa Cortez, Kaila Maldonado, McKenzie Smallwood, Jasmine Lopez, Diane Marquez-Venegas. Row 3(L-R)-Edgarth Benavides, Adan Contreras.