Kids Corner - Growing Up in Santa Cruz

La Manzana’s Summer Lunch Program Returns

growingupsc — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:28:10 +0000

The annual Summer Lunch program, sponsored by La Manzana Community Resources (LMCR), a program of Community Bridges’ Family Resource Collective, will kick off on June 9. Kids 18 and younger can pick up a free lunch at various sites in Santa Cruz and Watsonville through early-August. Most Watsonville sites will distribute lunches through August 8. Through Community Bridges, the Summer Lunch program has served 20,000 meals over the last three years, helping combat local childhood hunger and its harmful impacts on the area’s youngest residents. When school districts close for the summer many students who are not attending ongoing educational programs miss out on what sometimes is their only complete meal. It is estimated that more than 30 million children across the U.S. depend on free meal programs such as these and it’s even more critical when the traditional sources of that access are closed for summer. “Community Bridges Summer Lunch sites are easily accessible to local youth,” said LMCR Program Manager Liliana Zamora. “Some sites are in apartment complexes; others are in local parks and community centers. This allows youth to access lunch close to their residence instead of getting transportation to local school sites, removing another barrier for families to remain nourished through the summer.” Free meals will be provided to all children without eligibility documentation, at the following sites from 12-1pm, Monday through Friday. Serving dates are June 9– August 1. Boys and Girls Club of Santa Cruz: 543 Center St., Santa Cruz Nueva Vista at Beach Flats Park: 131 Leibrandt Ave. Santa Cruz Free meals will be provided to all children 0-18, without eligibility documentation, at the following sites from 121pm, Monday through Friday. Serving dates are June 9– August 8. La Manzana Community Resources: 521 Main St., Watsonville Stone Creek Apartments: 300 Bree Lane, Watsonville Vista Verde Apartments: 45 Steward Ave., Freedom Corralitos Creek Apartments: 125 Pajaro Circle, Freedom Free meals will be provided to all children without eligibility documentation, at the following sites from 12-1pm Monday through Friday. Serving dates are June 23-July 31. Sunny Meadows: 220 Ross Ave., Freedom Schapiro Knolls: 33 Minto Rd., Watsonville Free meals will be provided to all children, without eligibility documentation, at the following sites from 12-1pm Monday through Friday. Serving dates are June 23 – August 1. Sparrow Terrace: 139 Miles Ave., Watsonville A combination of state and local funding supports most of the Summer Lunch Program costs. But approximately 30 percent of the cost of this program is covered through donations. Those interested in making an individual donation to support the program may do so by visiting communitybridges.org/donate and selecting “La Manzana Community Resource Center.” Those interested in volunteering to help serve lunches, or to support any of our other programs, should visit communitybridges.org/volunteer.

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What’s Good and Healthy on the School Menu?

growingupsc — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 08:06:39 +0000

Some of the meals they serve us at Live Oak Elementary School, where I’m a fourth-grader, are kind of simple, like bagels with cream cheese, which they serve us almost every day, sometimes with apples (like in the picture below). My favorite foods at school all start with the letter “P.” I like the pizza, of course, because pizza is my favorite food, and the pizza at Live Oak is pretty good quality and has enough cheese. I also like the pesto pasta, especially the pesto part; I used to make pesto at home when I was eight with basil I picked in our garden, olive oil and parmesan cheese, and some nuts, I think maybe walnuts. It was pretty good. To me it tasted better when I made it myself. My other favorite food at school is the bean-and-cheese pupusas, the national food of El Salvador. See, all those foods start with the letter “P.” The staff at Live Oak try really hard to give us healthy food. “All meals come with organic 1 percent milk or nonfat milk, fresh fruit & vegetables,” according to the school website. They also make sure to do fun things like having “Chocolate Milk Day!” and “Cookie Day” (my favorite) and “Chips & Salsa Day!” and “Fortune Cookie Day” (when they also serve Chicken Potstickers and Veggie Fried Rice with Egg). Cheesy Bread Sticks are also fun. I like to make cheesy bread for myself at home. But don’t even talk to me about the corn dogs. A lot of kids like the corn dogs, but I tried them back in second grade and have never had one again. Not my thing. I don’t like corn dogs in general. On Tuesdays we usually have Orange Chicken With Rice, which is also not my favorite. My little sister Anaïs, who is in third grade, doesn’t like the pasta alfredo–she says the noodles are pretty good, but she doesn’t like the cheese. At home our favorite cheese is gruyere, which we usually buy at Costco. My favorite snacks are the maple waffles, the Cinnamon Swirl Bread, and the chocolate muffins (like in the other picture below). Thursday is the day for Seasonal Chocolate Beet Muffins. They might sound gross, but actually they are really good. So are the pumpkin muffins–and the parfaits, which have yogurt and granola and fruit, like peach or nectarine, which is my favorite. I have no complaints about the food at Live Oak Elementary, but I have some suggestions for food I’d like to have more. Here in this area, they grow a lot of beautiful strawberries, and every once in a while at school we have some strawberries. I wish we had them more often. And maybe mango now and then. I’m glad they have pineapple guava from the garden at school sometimes–we have a tree at home that grows them, but we never seem to get enough. Coco Kettmann is a fourth grader at Live Oak Elementary School, who loves drawing and painting, sleepovers with her friends and Taylor Swift.

The post What’s Good and Healthy on the School Menu? first appeared on Growing Up in Santa Cruz.

A Review of School Lunch

growingupsc — Fri, 07 Mar 2025 16:39:45 +0000

The post A Review of School Lunch first appeared on Growing Up in Santa Cruz.

‘Moana 2’ Shows You Should Never Give Up

growingupsc — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 06:50:06 +0000

I really loved the tropical setting for the new movie “Moana 2” with all the bright green palm trees and plants and also the deep blue of the ocean, which the main character, a girl named Moana, considers her friend. She can control the ocean. I don’t know how she did it. I also liked how there were so many different fun characters, starting with Moana’s friends, a little pig Pua and a skinny little chicken Heihei. Some characters were alive, like Moana’s little sister, Simea, who is really cute. Some other characters are dead, but still talk. There are actually a lot of dead characters in the movie, like Moana’s grandmother, who shows up to give her advice. “I can’t see where your story leads, but we never stop choosing who we are,” the grandmother tells Moana in the movie. In other words, we should not give up, even when things get hard. I will try to remember that lesson. I don’t really like animated movies that much. I would rather watch a movie with real-life actors. It’s more interesting for me. (My favorite animated show is “Bluey,” because it has dogs in it and dogs are my favorite animal.) I liked the songs in “Moana 2.” I think my favorite was “Get Lost,” even though it’s a weird person who sings it. I didn’t know if she was nice or mean. She kept the “demigod” Maui tied up, which was mean, but she seemed kind of nice to Moana. “Get lost, cut loose, and lose your way,” she sang. “Keep playin’ safe, you’ll never know. …. It’s time to get lost.” One part of the movie that was powerful and a little scary came when Moana found the magical island she had been looking for. I forget the name. (My Dad Googled it for me and says the island is called Motufetū.) A mean god, Nalo, who controls storms, put some kind of spell on Motufetū and keeps people away with terrible storms. Nalo also sinks the island under the water. Moana figures out that if she just sets foot on the island, even under water, she will break the spell. She tries to swim down, but Nalo sends one of his scary-looking lightning bolts down after her. I was nervous when she was just about to touch the island and the lightning was about to strike her. I didn’t know what happened to her. Her eyes closed and it looked like she might be dead. I thought she would wake up again, but I didn’t know. It was kind of emotional when her grandmother and other ancestors were lined up in a spiral around her, all showing their support and hoping she would wake up. I think my Dad, sitting next to me in the theater, might even have choked up a little. He’s funny. He gets emotional in movies. When Moana’s eyes open, it was exciting. I was happy that she was alive and happy when Maui lifted the magic island up out of the water. Then people could come together from different directions to the island and be together. That seemed like a good message. Coco Kettmann is a fourth grader at Live Oak Elementary School, who loves drawing and painting, sleepovers with her friends and Taylor Swift.

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‘A Christmas Carol’ Was a Fun Experience

growingupsc — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 10:03:54 +0000

A couple of days ago my parents took me to see “The Christmas Carol” at the veterans hall in downtown Santa Cruz California. I sat directly in front of the stage with my mom and dad and my little sister. It was great because we could see the actors’ faces and bodies really well from so close. And we could touch the fake snow that was lying on the floor right in front of the stage. Sometimes the actors would walk right past us on their way to the stage. We were so close that we were part of the play. When local actor Mike James, who was playing the mean, unhappy rich man Ebenezer Scrooge, swung a big stick at a homeless kid and almost hit him, it was right in front of us. Luckily, the kid ran away fast. It was funny how Scrooge was scared when the Ghost of Christmas Past came to him. He was in shock seeing a ghost. Almost anyone would be scared of that, I think. Later on they turned off the light and it was pitch dark and Scrooge fell to the ground. He was kind of in tears and really scared. A cool part of seeing the play was all of the costumes. The Ghost of Christmas Past, played by actress Andrea Sweeney Blanco, came out in a white wig and silver crown; she looked like a bright, sparkling angel. Actress Julie James, the Ghost of Christmas Present, came out in chains, taunting Scrooge, and looked scary and weird like a wicked witch with moles and pimples. The best part about “The Christmas Carol” was that there were kid actors: a girl and a boy. The little boy played Tiny Tim, who needed a crutch to walk. His family was very afraid of him dying. And then he did die in the future, when the ghost of Christmas Future shows Scrooge how things will turn out, if he doesn’t change fast! The story was really inspiring. At the end Scrooge learned his lesson. He finally paid attention and learned what Christmas is all about. He saw that it is actually pretty good and is not about money, it is about spending time with family, sharing and being kind. Mean old Scrooge turned into a nicer man, and even walked into the crowd to pat the head of a child, which happened to be my eight-year-old sister, Anais. Tiny Tim came back to life and had not died at all because scrooge had turned into a good person now he was generous and money was not the most important thing to him any more then they all celebrated Christmas together, Scrooge and Tiny Tim’s family, and everyone was smiling, dancing and singing! Coco Kettmann is a fourth grader at Live Oak Elementary School, who loves drawing and painting, sleepovers with her friends and Taylor Swift.

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