So, the summer is officially over for kids who attend public schools in the city as the new school year begins on Monday, Sept. 8. As we reported a few days ago, starting this Fall all School District of Philadelphia (SDP) students are eligible for free meals. As the menu is the same for all SDP schools and it’s often difficult to find it (you have to search for it on the SDP website) we will be publishing this information.

So here’s the full-service menu (breakfast and lunch) for the first week, Sept. 8 – 12, 2014. Come back every Sunday evening for the coming week’s menu. If your school is a Satellite menu school, click here. Continue Reading

The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) announced today that all Philadelphia public school students are now eligible to receive free school meals. Families will no longer need to complete applications to determine eligibility. All students in the SDP can receive free breakfast and lunch starting this fall, according to the announcement.

The new School Breakfast and Lunch program requirements have been introduced as the District’s Division of Food Services transitions to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for the 2014-15 school year. The new benefits will “include better access to school meals by easing the strain on household budgets, reducing the paperwork burden on families and eliminating the stigma associated with the free lunch program,” the announcement reads.

“Our goal is to provide as many students as possible with access to healthy, nutritious meals,” Dr. William R. Hite, Superintendent, said in a statement. “We want to keep students’ focus on learning, not hunger.”

If your child is entering Kindergarten in the fall, check out this great event organized by Parent Infant Center (PIC).

On Sunday, Aug. 17 from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m., PIC (42nd and Locust) invites all families in the community who have rising kindergarteners to join them for a fun play date.

This is a great opportunity to meet soon-to-be kindergarteners and their families and enjoy a casual time together. You can also learn what you can expect from families whose children have finished their kindergarten year. Representatives from PIC’s After School Center will be on hand to answer questions.

Siblings are welcome and families are encouraged to bring a snack to share.

To RSVP and if you have questions, email: kplaydate [at] gmail.com

Work in progress at the Lea School playground. (Photo courtesy of West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools)

UPDATE (8/14/14): The Greening Lea project has reached its fundraising goal after a sizable donation from the Spruce Hill Community Association (SHCA), West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools reports. SHCA’s gift of $1,000 completed and even exceeded the $3,000 fundraising goal for Greening Lea’s August project several weeks early!

8/7/14: Here’s a great chance to make something good out of a bad situation. The Henry C. Lea School (47th and Locust) has a chance to get a great playground set from the recently shuttered Alexander Wilson School (46th and Woodland) and they need some help.

The new playground set was built at Wilson in November 2010 through a grant from The Hamels Foundation, the charitable organization of Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels. The plan is to move the playground set onto the Lea playground (near the existing structure there) at the corner of 47th and Spruce, roughly doubling the size of the school’s play area.

But the committee in charge of Greening Lea, the West Philly Coalition for Neighborhood Schools project to make the Lea School’s footprint greener and more kid-friendly, needs to raise $3,000 to help cover the costs of transplanting the playground structure. The grant will help cover costs for a new porous surface that will be built under the new and existing play structure to make it safe for kids. The new surface will also help with the Greening Lea plan to manage stormwater run-off. The current massive asphalt playground, if future plans play out, will be converted into an inviting tree-lined space.

But that’s still in the future. The goal now is to get the new playground structure in place. The work at the playground has already begun. Click here to donate. As usual, any amount will help.

A new early learning center has opened within a few blocks of the area’s largest employers as part of the development of the area around the Philadelphia Cathedral at 38th and Chestnut.

The Philadelphia Cathedral Early Learning Center offers about 100 spots for children ranging from infants to pre-school aged kids in the remodeled basement of the cathedral, which, with exposed ductwork and beams in the ceiling and a lot of hardwood floors, feels more like an artist’s loft than a pre-school.

“We really want the center to feel like home,” said enrollment specialist Elaine Errico. “You see beautiful wood floors and real furniture.”

Think earth tones, not Disney.

The Philadelphia Cathedral is leasing the basement to Hildebrandt Learning Centers, a management company that runs a few dozen centers around the region, including several on college campuses. The expansion is part of the plan that includes a new 25-story apartment building and three-story commercial building next door.

The construction, which is scheduled to be completed next spring, means that the learning center entrance is a little tricky to find for those interested in a tour (construction of the center itself is done and when we were there they were training the first group of teachers). The entrance is currently on Ludlow, a half-block north of Chestnut. They are offering tours between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Here are some more details on the center:

• Open from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• Full- and part-time is available.
• The center participates in the state-subsidized tuition program.
• Number of spots: infants (6 weeks to 12 months) – 8; young toddlers – (13-24 months) – 10; toddler (25-35 months) – 24; preschool (3-5 years) – 60.

To schedule a tour call 267-428-6714.

Little WePAC library installation in progress. (Photo by Sarah Elizabeth)

The West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC), a nonprofit that works on reopening and restaffing libraries at local schools, is inviting neighbors to the launch of their first mini library outside of Samuel B Huey Elementary at 52nd and Pine Streets. WePAC will be bringing students out to get books and eat water ice from 1-3 p.m. today and hope that more community members could make it!