INSIDE THIS ISSUE Back To School.................................A10 Business & Professional....................................................A4 Classifieds............................................................................A6 Community Calendar.......................................................A15 Healthy Times .....................................................................A2 Library Times......................................................................A5
Serving New Haven & East Allen County
Festivals Harlan Days A7 Monroeville Harvest Festival A8
www.EastAllenTimes.com
July 20, 2012
Local chapter feeding thousands By Nichole Hacha-Thomas nthomas@kpcnews.net
Photo by Chad Kline
Smoking now is banned in most businesses, including area restaurants. Area owners said they’ve seen little change.
City eateries adjusting to new smoking ban New Haven restaurant owners see little change Nichole Hacha-Thomas nthomas@kpcnews.net
If the hoopla leading up to the implementation of the Indiana Smoke Free Air Law was to be believed, come July 1 the tables inside the former smoking section at every
restaurant in New Haven would sit empty because those customers would stay home instead. Nearly three weeks later, area business owners say the smoking law, which prohibits lighting up See BAN, page A13
About 50 volunteers met June 30 at Grace Gathering Church in New Haven to pack meals for the Fort Wayne chapter of Kids Against Hunger. The day after a massive storm left more than 88,000 area residents without electricity, local Kids Against Hunger founders Alex and Emily Lengacher and their three sons were without power and Emily wondered whether the family should cancel the planned food-packing event. “Alex and I personally didn’t have power,” said Emily Lengacher. “We didn’t even know if anyone would show up, but we got there and all 50 volunteers showed up. And some of them didn’t have power themselves. It was good to continue to do the work, even though we were suffering a little bit.” The work, Lengacher explains, consisted of packing 10,000 meals for starving children in India. To date, the local organization has packed 172,638 meals since its inception in the fall of 2011. Those meals have been sent to far-flung places like Honduras, Haiti, Kenya and Uganda. Meals also have found their way stateside to American citizens in need. The local chapter’s parent organization, based in Minneapolis, Minn., has packed millions of meals through its 95 satellite chapters. The Fort Wayne chapter organizes public packing events like the one at Grace Gathering Church a few times a year. But, it also hosts packing events at the request of other service organizations and churches. Lengacher said KAH provides the food, while the requesting group provides the volunteers and the funds to cover the costs of food. At the recent public packing event, volunteers shoveled four basic ingredients into meal packs. Each included rice, a high-protein soy, dehydrated vegetables and a 21-vitamin mixture. The cost of each meal is 23 cents, which includes the ingredients, shipping and some overhead costs.
Courtesy photo
Volunteers pack meals for children in India during a packing event scheduled by the Fort Wayne chapter of Kids Against Hunger. To date, the organization has packed and sent more than 172,000 meals. Food is sent to a variety of locations, both in the U.S. and overseas. Lengacher said most of the organization’s financial support comes from private donors. For such a small price, Lengacher said, the meals have a big impact. “The organization has seen incredible success with children who are incredibly malnourished. They come to life after just a few days of eating the meals and they can focus on learning and having fun and being kids,” Lengacher said. Though the Fort Wayne chapter of Kids Against Hunger doesn’t have any public packing events scheduled now, Lengacher said it most likely will host another event in October. She said the group always is willing and ready to plan private packing events in the meantime. For more information about the local chapter of Kids Against Hunger, visit kah-fortwayne.org.
EACS ISTEP+ scores released With a majority of Hoosier students passing the state administered ISTEP+ exam, Leo Elementary School topped area scores in both English/language arts (E/LA) and math with a 90 percent passing rate. ISTEP+ is given each spring to approximately 500,000 students in third through eighth grades to gauge their progress in the classroom. Overall, 71 percent of Indiana students passed both the E/LA and math portions of the test during the 2011-12 school year — a 1 percent gain on the previous school year, and an 8 percent gain since the 2008-09 school year. East Allen County Schools followed the statewide trend, also with passing rates up 8 percent since the 2008-09
Area ISTEP+ passing rates School Name
2011-12
2010-11
Change
Cedarville Elementary Heritage Jr./Sr. High Hoagland Elementary Leo Elementary Leo Jr./Sr. High Meadowbook Elem. New Haven Elem. New Haven Middle Paul Harding Jr. High Prince Chapman Woodburn Elementary Woodlan Jr./Sr. High
89.25 60.58 64.69 89.61 80.93 68.63 NONE 61.36 25.19 35.59 85.33 66.67
88.69 64.02 61.24 90.75 82.13 59.18 64.71 59.27 NONE 35.59 79.10 66.67
+0.56 -3.44 +3.45 -1.14 -1.2 +9.45 N/A +2.09 N/A +1.71 +6.23 -1.81
school year and in math, EACS students saw a 9 percent increase. Fifthgrade students improved scores by more than 3 percent on both portions of the test; EACS students in sixth through eighth grades had a 5 percent and 4 percent increase, respectively. Two EACS schools made strides toward better scores this year: Meadowbrook Elementary improved its passing rate by almost 10
percent, while Woodburn Elementary improved by 6 percent. The district also is celebrating Cedarville Elementary third-graders who had 93 percent passing E/LA and 92 percent passing the math portion of the test. The same cannot be said however for Prince Chapman Academy, which saw its passing rate come in below 50 See ISTEP, page A12
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