Social Networking and The School Lunch Program

A public administration challenge that I believe can be addressed using the tools of social networking is increasing participation rates in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the reframing the perception of the program by providing nutritious meals for school children
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federal program implemented in 1946 was designed to “safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation’s children and to encourage the domestic consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities” (schoolnutrition.org). I would use Tempe Elementary school district as an example
Poppendieck (2010)  describes the NSLP as a program that has been saddled with the tasks of alleviating poverty, ending hunger, reducing waste, controlling spending, and overcoming childhood obesity, along with its original goals of safeguarding the health and well being of the nation’s children and encouraging the consumption of nutritious agricultural commodities. The program is a reimbursable one; that is, schools and States get reimbursed by the Federal government based on the number of meals provided. Thus participation rates is related to revenues. There are three categories for the meals- full price, reduced and free meals. For more information on the school lunch program, please check here. I would focus on two challenges that face this program; the problem of access for eligible families who do not participate and achieving the program’s goal of providing nutritious meals and not just meals for children.

The problem of access and low participation rates: Poppendieck (2010) defines the problem of access as the barriers between an eligible child and a school meal. These barriers are application, certification, verification and price of the meal. Parents who are eligible for free and reduced price lunches may not apply for the program for reasons such as stigma, inability to understand the complex procedure and for something as simple as returning the form. See Tempe form here
The school district the forms are available online but parents have to print out the forms and return to the school. This creates the first problem of forms not being returned. A suggestion is that the District can develop a system where parents can fill and submit the form online. This eliminates the problem of application. Tempe's  application form is well structured such that the burden of proof of eligibility for low-income families is removed from them.
Lessing (2006) gives various examples of how constraints (market, architecture, law and norms) can be used to change behavior and how the constraints can complement one other.
Tempe's architecture is that of "stickiness" that is,  residents are very involved with the government  and know what they want (personal communication with Charlie Meyer, Tempe City Manager). The District can complement the present architecture by using social media to drive the goal of increasing participation in the program.The District has a facebook account where information and activities are shared with parents. However, there is no information on the page about  the school lunch program. The district can use its facebook website to promote the school lunch program, make parents aware of the benefits program, upload the menus on facebook, upload pictures of kitchen preparing the meals, encourage parents to volunteer and serve meals to kids, encourage online discussions and forums and respond to enquiries by parents and guardians.
On providing nutritious meals for schoolchildren ( and not just meet calories and dietary requirements), the buy-in of parents is necessary to  change the negative perceptions of the program. Research (Poppendieck, 2010; Gordon, Crepinsek, Nogales, &Condon, 2007; Quinn, Husley&Ponza, 2009) has shown that some parents do not allow their kids participate in the program because the meals provided are unhealthy. A look at the menu validates this concern. Schools are faced with challenge of serving meals that children would eat and not waste and providing truly nutritious meals. This challenge can also be addressed using social networking. Arizona has programs that promote healthy eating, the problem is that people are unaware of these programs and the literature is academic.  Tempe School  district can create online forums where parents can share ideas on the meals to be  provided and methods of food presentation to children.  The district can send tweets and update their Facebook status with statements like “ an apple a day keeps the doctor away” that promote developing healthy nutrition habits for kids and parents, upload pictures and videos of celebrities and kids who eat “their vegetables”, share the successes of programs undertaken to promote healthy eating, and upload nutrition training for parents. Social networking can be used to change norms of what children want to eat and what they should eat.
Using this tool provides an inexpensive means of increasing participation rates, getting feedback and evaluating the program and gaining new ideas on how to implement the program.




References

Gordon A, Crepinsek M.K., Nogales, R. and Condon E. (2007). School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study- III: Volume 1: School Food Service, School Food Environment, and Meals Offered and Served. http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/PDFs/SNDAvol1.pdf

Gordon A,Fox M.K., Clark M, Nogales, R., Gleason, P, Condon, E, and Sarin, A. (2007).School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study-III: Volume II: Student Participation and Dietary Intakes. http://www.fns.usda.gov/ora/menu/published/CNP/FILES/SNDAIII-Vol2.pdf Poppendieck, J. (2010). Free For All, Fixing School Food in America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press

Mirtcheva, D.M., Powell, L.M. (2009) Participation in the National School Lunch Program: Importance of School-Level and Neighborhood Contextual Factors. Journal of School Health. 79(10). 485- 494.

National Research Council of the National Academies. (2010). Developing and Evaluating Methods for Using American Community Survey Data to Support School Meals Programs (Interim Report)
Retrieved from http://www.fns.usda.gov/ora/menu/published/CNP/FILES/SchoolMealsfnl.pdf

Quinn M., Husley L., and Ponza, M. (2009). Factors Associated with School Meal Participation and the Relationship between different Participation Measures. Retrieved from http://www.schoolmealsmatter.org/resources/pdfs/kids/School_Breakfast_Participation_Measures.pdf

US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. (2008). The National School Lunch Program: Background, Trends and Issues. Retrieved from www.ers.usda.gov

The power of an engaged public official

Disclosure: The title of this blog was modified from my chosen example. I read this article and I thought to myself "public administrators can apply this on job and their lives would be easier". In this article, Rob Markey shares his experience of how he got exceptional customer service from Jetblue because an "engaged employee" addressed his  twitter vent. As public administrators we have learned to differentiate between the private sector and the public sector and how private sector models cannot be applied to public agencies. This article shows otherwise. At one time or the other, we have had terrible experiences with public officials and agencies, we have had to drive to see offices where our requests could have been handled online. I visited the Facebook page of Tempe Elementary School District and a parent complained about the non- availability of a meal for her child. There was no response on that thread from the District. We can only  imagine the decision that parent took. If she withdrew her child from participating in the program, that means a loss of revenue for the district.  As potential public servants if we utilize the benefits social media tools provide, we may be more efficient and effective in service delivery to  clients and citizens. We can also make people believe that government works and it is not all red tape.

Answers anyone

I went through some of the articles that addressed the issue of privacy and I wonder how the "problem of invading privacy" would be addressed  in  countries where individual rights do not take precedence over group rights. For instance on the issue of location data, until recently in Nigeria, phone service providers did not have any personal information on customers (For example, I could own three phones and be anonymous, my phone number was not tied to an address or name). Some time last year,  Nigeria's government embarked on project where everyone with a Nigerian (including those living abroad) have to register their phone numbers,provide addresses and other demographic information and thumb print. THe purpose for this project is to enable law enforcement gather location data and tackle crime. Remarkably, there has been compliance. To my knowledge no one has complained about the information on citizens  that would be available to the government.  So my question is if other countries try to do what Nigeria's government  has done what challenges would they face?

E-communities

I am turning the curve and I am gradually believing the gospel of social media tools and the internet. Chris Anderson's talk on the effects of web video and other tools was spot on- I have so many personal anecdotes on how youtube has literally changed lives and given people the push they needed to succeed or effect the changes they want-. I especially like his example of video and the effects it could have on science. Video may indeed be the future. His talk also ties in with Goldhaber's attention shoppers article
The videos and assigned articles were very for emotional for me. Actually I got emotional from Jamie Heywood's video. However, this reading and this video assigned really touched me. This video because I kind of agree with Jeremy and the article because it just hit me! (can't think of a word that can capture what I felt). In the last year, I have lost school mates that we "met again" thanks to Facebook and after they passed Facebook provided an avenue to celebrate their lives and know that they live on somehow. Sharing with other people who knew them, learning about the lives they lived and getting answers to questions about their death - questions that you cannot ask if for instance you went to commiserate with their family- gives me closure.  I am sure this is one of the unintended uses of Facebook. Jamie's video was quite poignant and innovations like have profound uses and dangers as mentioned in this research for everyone especially patients and their family.  I agree that one of the blessings of the internet is that you can empathize and process your emotions when friends and family face health challenges and one can be there for them when you can't be there physically.

On to happier things. Joining meet up was fun, (I was surprised to see Nigerian events on the site). I joined this meet-up, hopefully my spanish speaking skills would improve. Joining second life and world of warcraft was tough because i did not know what to expect. Wikipedia provided an overview of what the two worlds were about so I joined with a friend. Second life was not user friendly or interactive for a first time user. I kept bumping into people at first and the people around me were speaking in German (I think second life should look into "eavesdropping on people's conversations), I became friends with some strangers who advised me to get a mouse if i really want to enjoy the second life experience. I also had to change my settings from "basic"  to "advanced" on second life before I could really participate. One thing I found amusing was that you could link your "real life" to your second life. My question is why would I want to do that? World of Warcraft was more user friendly and I got the hang of it pretty quickly and was welcomed by other users i met on the site.
It was eye opening to see groups that addressed societal issues such as rape and those who promoted vices  public administration issues that can be addressed in the virtual world. I would like to explore how this tool can be used to tackle the incidence of bullying in schools.

This Privacy Issue....

The Case

Adam Cohen in this article discussed a ruling that was passed by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2010. The court upheld the decision of a lower court to allow evidence gathered using an unauthorized surveillance system (a GPS tracker) to indict an individual. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) gathered evidence against Pineda Morendo using a GPS tracker attached to his car while parked in his driveway. Cohen contended that Morendo’s privacy rights were invaded because he  had an expectation of privacy in his driveway and the DEA required a warrant to install the GPS tracker.

On this points, Cohen faulted the court ‘s ruling and noted the dissension of one of the judges on the Orwellian nature of the ruling. He observed that if government is allowed to intrude into people’s privacy especially  people of modest means, it portends a dangerous future for the US. This article showed how digital technologies make our behavior “monitorable and searchable” (Lessig, 2006: 203).
In his book Code 2.0, Lessig noted that there  that there are 3 conceptions about privacy which are “preserving dignity, minimizing intrusion, and a way to constrain the power of the State to regulate behavior”. A review of the case (read judgment here) shows that the  initial tip the DEA  had was an agent saw a group of people buy fertilizer used to grow marijuana, tailed the car and a GPS tracker  was installed 7 times on the car (once while the car was parked in his driveway and the other times  the car was parked in public spaces). I believe that the DEA should have obtained a warrant when the tracker was installed while the car was parked in his driveway.

Analysis

In this case two values conflicted;  An individual’s privacy and protection from unreasonable searches (minimizing intrusion) versus law enforcement. What expectations of privacy did Morendo have in his driveway? The Court stated that Morendo did not have an expectation of privacy because he did not have a “no trespass sign” or fence around his driveway. The court also allowed warrantless GPS tracking. I enjoy watching series on crime and law (Suits and law and order). From what I understand prosecutors are not allowed to use evidence illegally obtained or not obtained in good faith so I was surprised that  court allowed the evidence to be stand. Allowing such searches I believe is an invasion of privacy that may be abused. See a related case here. On the Morendo case, I submit that the method used by the DEA was unethical because as Lessig argued in the use of digital surveillance “no action –including a subsequent search- can be taken against any individual without judicial review” (Lessig  had earlier asserted that the restrictions that apply to traditional surveillance need not apply to digital surveillance except on some conditions).The DEA should have obtained a warrant since from the information available, they had reasonable suspicion.

 An alternative is that the DEA could have obtained legally Morendo’s mobile footprints to track his locations and movements from his phone service provider. I understand that cellphones have the capacity to  track the location of individuals.The agency would have achieved the goal of apprehending a suspect. Here, architecture and law would have combined to regulate behavior. This alternative is less intrusive than installing a GPS tracker. The decreasing cost of gathering information has given others access to our mobile and internet footprints. In addition, when we share information about ourselves in public we give up “any right to privacy” (Lessig,2006; 217) so Morendo does not have an high degree of expectation of privacy on his movements. Another aspect I agreed with Lessig is on how we need to protect ourselves regardless of the laws that exist. As the author pointed out we still bolt our  windows and lock our doors even though laws exist that make trespassing illegal. The present architecture of the Internet has made protection of privacy difficult and the solution may be the establishment of boundaries.

What are the difference in the values?

In the original idea, the DEA installed a tracking device on an individual’s car while parked in his driveway and gathered evidence using that tracker to make an arrest. Here, it was a case of an individual’s fourth amendment right against the an agency’s ability to carry out its mandate. As stated earlier, if the DEA had obtained a warrant to install the first GPS and the subsequent ones, Mr. Morendo may not have been able to state that his rights were violated. In the alternative idea values in conflict are a mobile company ability to use the records it has on a customer to help a law enforcement agency versus the company’s “loyalty” to it client. I contend that the second alternative is more acceptable because a law currently exists  that permits such powers and neither offends an individual's dignity nor intrudes on their privacy. A fallout of the case is that some illegal immigrants were arrested with Mr. Morendo;the GPS tracking device served two purposes which Lessig argued against. 

As public administrators we have to satisfice and make decisions. “Do nothing” is not an option, We however have to weigh how our decisions advance the greater good while also protecting individual rights.

Here is another interesting article on how "dangerous" location data is.

Have a great weekend