Food resources for families

Below are school and community resources available to provide food assistance for those who need it. 

Food Market at Irving

The Irving Food Market is open to any student, parents of students, and school staff. Those who need food assistance may come to the Irving cafeteria on Monday, November 3, 2025, at 3:00. Menu-specific items are available and supplemented by a limited number of donated goods, bakery items, and fresh produce as those items are available. Food is based on an allocated amount. 

Free and Reduced School Meal Program

Families can apply for Free and Reduced school meals at any time, especially if there has been a recent life change or change in income. If approved, the student then qualifies for free and reduced meals through the school year. Families will need to complete a new application starting next school year. Once your student is approved for free and reduced meals, you can also qualify your family for scholarships and fee waivers for student activities at school.

You can pick up a paper application from your student’s school if unable to access the form online. Learn more about the Free and Reduced Meal program on our website.

LPS Emergency Pantry

In response to the high need of students and their families experiencing hunger, the Food Bank, in cooperation with Leadership Lincoln and Lincoln Public Schools, opened the LPS Emergency Pantry.

Any LPS, private or homeschool student and their family can come to the pantry to receive food assistance. The amount of food families can have is based on family size.

The pantry is located at Bryan Community (300 S. 48th St.) and is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3-5:30 p.m. when school is in session.

*You must have a school-aged student to visit the Emergency Pantry.

Community Food Resources

• List of community food distribution opportunities compiled by UNL Extension

• 2-1-1 Nebraska

• Food Bank of Lincoln website (and here is a pdf list of resources from the Food Bank)

• Little Free Pantries

• MyLNK is a website (https://mylnk.app) and a mobile app (for Apple and Android - search MyLNK) that has information about community resources. It can be downloaded in a wi-fi environment and then used when wi-fi is not available. The website provides translations in Spanish, Vietnamese, and Arabic.

• Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (SNAP)

Information from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services about SNAP

On October 29, Nebraska paused SNAP benefits due to the federal government shutdown. This means that SNAP benefits will not be issued during the month of November until the shutdown ends.

What do I need to do?

• If you are currently on SNAP, you may continue to use any remaining benefits on your EBT card for nine months from the date of last use.

• You must also continue to recertify your SNAP and report any changes to your personal information.

• If you are not on SNAP, you can still sign up, and your application will still be processed.

Interested in helping an LPS student and family in need?

If you are interested in helping LPS students and families in need, you can give to The Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools student emergency fund, or contact them at 402-436-1612.

Spirit Week:  November 17-21

Monday:  Monochromatic Day-Wear all one color of your choice

Tuesday:  Twin day-Rhyme without Reason with a friend

Wednesday:  Wear Pink

Thursday:  Pajama Day

Friday:  Sports Jersey day OR dress like your favorite fictional book/movie character 

Fall Food Drive:  November 17-21 

Competition between Advisory classes to see who can collect the most items

Most Needed Items:  Canned goods, Peanut Butter, Mac and Cheese, Rice, Granola Bars, Coffee, cereal, Juice

Winners and Prizes will be announced after Thanksgiving Break

November 21:  Popcorn Friday

$1/bag of popcorn in the cafeteria after school

CASH ONLY

Next Meeting:  Tuesday, December 2nd 3-3:30 in room 110

Agenda items:  Candy Grams and Thank you! teacher gifts

Questions? Please contact: 

Mrs. Zetterman-Pickerel at rzetter@lps.org  Mrs. Buell at abuell@lps.org

Your child is in 7th grade and there are health requirements which MUST be completed. You can schedule PHYSICALS at any time and at the same time receive the required TDap VACCINE. A DENTAL EXAM is also required for all 7th graders.

If you do not have a doctor or you do not have insurance, you may contact the Clinic with a Heart at 402-421-2924, the Health Department at 402-441-8065, or Health 360 at 402-441-6642.  

We highly encourage that the Physicals, Immunizations, and Dental Exams be completed as soon as possible and turned in as soon as possible. As soon as these requirements are met, please turn in the forms to Irving Middle School either in person, by mail, Fax : 402-458-3214 or email : cehmke@lps.org.

Students who are not compliant with immunizations by October 15th, 2025 will be excluded from school until they are compliant. If you have any questions regarding these requirements or need help with resources, please contact the Irving Health office 402-436-1214 ext 4. 

In PE, we have started our soccer unit. Students will focus on ball handling, passing, shooting, and eventually working their way into competitive games.

Now that we have covered the fall of the Roman Empire, we are learning about Medieval Europe. This week, the students learned about both the Feudal system as well as what life was like in a medieval town. Ultimately, the students will weigh the positives and negatives for the people living within those systems and determine which one they would prefer to live under.

English 7: Dear 7th Grade English Families,

Our main project for the quarter will be the District Common Assessment (DCA) Argument Essay. This essay is a formal piece of writing where students must argue that "Every individual plays a role in shaping the environment through their daily choices." The goal of this project is to practice the essential real-world skills of building a strong, logical case and supporting it with evidence from multiple sources.

This week in class, we are beginning our preparation for this essay. We are making an exciting pivot from analyzing real-world arguments to finding the "hidden" arguments in stories and poetry. Students are spending the rest of the week deconstructing the essay prompt, reviewing the rubric, and brainstorming their reasons for the essay.

Next week, we will move directly into the "Research & Outlining" phase, where your student will learn to gather evidence from our texts and their own experiences to build a strong, formal outline. This is a big, important process, and we're excited to get started. Please ask your student about the essay they are beginning to plan!

English 7D: Hello 7th Grade Families,

Here is an update on the exciting work your students are doing in English class as we dive into our main project for the quarter!

What We're Working On: The Q2 Argument Essay This quarter, students are tackling our District Common Assessment (DCA) for argument writing. The project asks them to answer the question, "How do individuals adapt to solve overwhelming problems?" To do this, they are learning to build a strong argument by making a claim (a thesis) and supporting it with evidence. Their evidence will come from two key sources: our whole-class novel, The Martian, and their own personal experiences with adaptation. This essay is a fantastic way to practice critical thinking, evidence-gathering, and structured writing.

This Week's Focus (Nov. 10-14): Building the Blueprint This week is all about building the skills and the blueprint for the essay. On Monday, we held a mini-lesson on "Reading Past the Technobabble" to help students find the key problems and solutions in our novel without getting stuck on the dense science. For the rest of the week, we are focused on two critical skills: Writing Warrants (learning how to explain their evidence), and finding "strong" evidence (learning to tell the difference between a simple fact and a powerful example.) This week culminates on Friday, when students will use all their gathered evidence to create a detailed outline for their essay.

Next Week's Preview (Nov. 17-21): Drafting "Bootcamp" Next week is our "Drafting Bootcamp"! With their outlines complete, students will pivot from planning to writing. We will use a structured approach, dedicating each day to a different part of the essay—from the introduction to the final conclusion. Our goal is for every student to have a complete rough draft by the end of next week, setting them up for success as we move into revision and editing.

As always, thank you for your support at home!

We have been spending the last week making some observations about bath bombs and designing a particle model to explain what is happening when we put a bathbomb in water. In the next couple of weeks, we will be exploring our questions about what bath bombs are made of, what are in the gas bubbles that were created, where the bath bombs go when they disappear, what are the active ingredients in a bath bomb . While answering these questions, we will also be learning about physical & chemical properties, property changes, and chemical reactions. We are looking forward to many demonstrations and hands-on activities as we explore the matter around us.  Please feel free to check out the website with videos and lesson activities that we have been working on. Online Website.

Hello!  Students just finished taking their Communication Model tests and will receive their results early next week.  They may retake the test, but they will need to show me flashcards for the sixteen vocabulary terms and have all of the formative assignments completed before they may try the test again.   

We are starting Unit 3 which is framed around the essential question, “ What role does social responsibility play for individuals in a community? In this unit, there are two major goals.  One is to think about and implement a small project students can do with their team to show social responsibility.  As they are working through that project, I will be teaching them specific skills and strategies they can use when team work or group work doesn’t go as plan.  This will include what to do when team members talk too much or not enough, how to handle people who try to do it all and those who avoid helping, and more.   

As always, please email me if you have any questions!  skroenk@lps.org

It has been a pleasure teaching your students in World Language.  So far, we have learned the Spanish alphabet and animals, French flags and clothing terms and listened to children’s and pop music in both languages.  Our next languages include German, Chinese and Japanese.  In our German Unit, we will be learning greetings, numbers and food vocabulary.  In our Chinese and Japanese units, we will focus on holidays and the Chinese zodiac calendar. 

• In art class we have been busy going over classroom expectations and procedures. 

• We are learning the classroom space and where materials are stored.

• We also discussed symbolism and wrote down objects that personally     represent us. 

  1. Students chose 1 symbol to create using found objects in a 40 min task party.

  2. Students will use those 5 symbols to decorate their sketchbook covers.

This week we have been working on our clay unit. Students learned the different stages of clay and created their own hand-built mug using clay slabs. Later, once fired, students will get to glaze their mugs using various design elements. 

Students in Business & Technology 7 have recently concluded their computer software applications unit, with a mini-unit exploring Google Sheets.  Students are now learning about infographics and using that knowledge to create infographics in Adobe Express.  Students are creating an internet safety infographic, as well as an infographic about their dream vacation.

Students in Family and Consumer Science are just wrapping up their sewing projects. They did an awesome job working in the sewing lab.

The rest of our quarter will be spent on a safety and sanitation unit in the kitchen. We will also work on measuring and working with their group to complete food labs.

Rewards Plus-  Students just finished a unit about Food Preservation to practice many reading and writing skills.  The next unit focuses on The Cardiovascular System where we will be practicing many writing, reading and comprehension skills.  

Rewards Secondary-  Students are finishing up a Unit that includes four types of lessons focusing on word parts, prefixes, suffixes, vowel combinations, sentence writing, sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling and fluency.  We will be testing the late part of this week.  

***Please encourage your child to read, practice fluency and practice spelling at home***

Please email me with any questions! Thanks! rhughes3@lps.org or jbaker@lps.org 

The orchestra is off to a wonderful start this year and sounds fantastic. With a big group, we start slow to focus on routine and structure in the classroom so that rehearsals can run smoothly. Students have grown on this front each day this week. Thank you for all the effort. 

Practice Cards: 

Students are expected to practice 60 or more minutes each week and record it on their blue practice card. Each week, the card will be due on Tuesday. Ideally, students will turn it in Monday, but it gives them a chance to forget, and bring it the next day if necessary. Practice can be on any music the student wishes to play, as long as they are accomplishing class assignments. That could include the music from class, music from private lessons (the actual lesson time does not count), music from other books/online, playing by ear, or playing along with recordings of music they like.