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stouffville suntribune thursday march 4 2004 7 roaming around with jim thomas bible ban in schools irks regions gideons another nail in the christian coffin the york region district school board through its latest edict has closed the door to the distribution of all religious information in its classrooms the announcement revises a statute approved in 1995 further tightening the noose the proclamation is particularly disturbing to the gideons principal distributors of new testaments at ele mentary and secondary schools since 1946 murray bennett vicepresident of the gideons markhamstouffville camp said no testaments were circu lated without parental approval and only to public school students in grade 5 they agreed he said to provide this service only during lunch hour and recess principals he noted were agreeable to this under the- revised policy the board has closed the door pretty tight the policy hasnt really changed mr bennett said its just being enforced similar restrictions hold true in peel region and toronto he explained a different set of rules applies to catholic schools mr bennett stated for the most part theyre wide open with the decision resting on the shoulders of individual principals its a joy to work with them he said and the manner isms of the children certainly show the same goes for the stouffville christian school and montessori schools he added ron gee markhamstouffville gideon camp president said the gideons was specifically mentioned in the board memo the organization he said began in the united states in 1899 and came to canada 12 years later its association with schools however began here first itis now in 179 countries around the world recording more than one billion hand outs in 81 languages canadians unfortunately dont complain too much everything associated with christianity is on a downward spiral the canadian home office is guelph ron james also of the local gideons said while the ban on distribution came from the board last fall many principals either ignored it or werent aware of it he said he had been in touch with whitchurch- stouffville trustee loralea carruthers about the revised memo and learned she favoured its reenforcement mr james claims its another sign of an moral break down in society one added to another he said distribution of new testaments outside school prop erty is difficult mr james explained because so many students travel by bus its been a very vital part of our ministry he said he recalled how many children treasured the testaments as their very own some teachers too he suggested only through an outcry from the community could the boards policy be changed canadians unfortunately dont do that too much he said everything associated with christianity is on a down ward spiral mr gee said parents i talked to agreed one father is considering transferring his children to a catholic school lucia cascioli public affairs officer with the york region public board sees it differently everyone treated equally we want everyone treated equally she said the revised race relations policy statement does not single out the gideons ms cascioli said whatever the decision its obvious the doors been slammed shut on religious education in public schools and it shows jim thomas is a stouffville resident who has written for area newspapers for more than 50 years roasting chickens i think that weve only promoted these twice before for no particular reason really because they make the most amazing oldfashioned meal all the chickens we handle come from a farm king capon in sharon ontario theyre more yellow in colour theyre airchilled its better and theyve got a noticeable flavour and texture difference we used to call them freerange until we got our knuckles rapped because they dontgo outside or have access to the outside yearround judging by our recent weather why would they were proud of these and judging by our poultry bills our customers really like them too for this week i got doreen to write out hertried and true roast chicken with gravy recipe which will be available to go with the f is jl chickens fe qi reg 299 lb 45 lb ave size i vegetarian vegetable soup we make this using a whole bunch of fresh vegetables season it on the mild side and let the flavour simmer through and j as a bonus its virtually fat free j as well a wfft reg 549 serves 3 4 grape red green the same lesson as the blueberries applies youd be surprised at how many sizes and qualities and- prices there are to choose from at the food terminal our approach has always been to pick the best quality that we can and then ask the price others start the other way around some start in the middle these are really good grapes the price not too bad eh whats for dinner this week from the frozen entree section well have something new theyre stuffed boneless chicken breasts airchilled in a dijon cream sauce whats the stuffing its our venerable sage and onion stuffing ayell have two i sizes whatc baking this week its blueberry week in the bakery too but with a bit of difference whenever we bake with blueberries we use wild blues from northern ontario and quebec and we freeze them in great quantities in order to have mem year round when we decorate we use the best fresh ones that we can buy lots to choose from this week blueberries im sure there are drawbacks to having a country shaped like chile but one of the big bonuses is having the progressive growing seasons as the climate shifts over the long northsouth stretch of land what that means in this case is a window of availability for these berries which is far beyond ours thats why we still have them m plentiful supply with lots of flavour ffeo and at a great price b jjr from chile half pints be oxjr smoked when we prepare these we do a few things that make them especially good one is that we use brome lake ducks which are generally a lowerfat duck two we trim them well three we cure them in a lowersalt cure and four we slow them until theyre cooked over oak our batch this week are definitely on the large size so while you can get a whole one at 1495 well split them in half for 795 youll find that these are great in a warm pasta a salad or just cut and sliced off the bone there is a limited supply so get them early blueberry upside- down cakes this is a different version of my moms oldfashioned pineapple upsidedown cake its a moist light white cake with a hint of lemon and wild blueberries in the caramelized brownsugar butter topping twosizesjlandt blueberry custard cakes made with wild blues apples and cinnamon in a butter cake with custard baked in noc also two sizes and blueberry white chocolate cheesecakes this is made with wild blues and white chocolate swirled into our cheesecake mixture its topped with you guessed it more blueberries and white chocolate shavings kl 3hq zu blueberry scones these are made with the wild bnesv 129 blueberrymuffins we started making muffins last week at the suggestion of one of our customers it seems that everyones kids like muffins in their lunch bag and blueberry is one ftft ofthe most popular a wild blueberry pies these can be had in a number of ways you can get themreaoy to bake from our freezer either with pastry top or crumble and you can fill your house with that aroma extraordinaire of pies baking or you can buy one already baked at the pastry counter either way theyre really good 9 size blueberry loaf this is our lemon loaf mixture baked fairly full of wild blues 4 as in most weeks youll find all these delicious blueberry items on sale at 13 ofk xras week our cranberry port jeixy im sure that youve noticed a number of our new products on display in the store a new one this week actually a new format is our cranberry- port jelly in the 250 ml size v a oo its great with roast pork or fowl and even smoked duck fn rjr 250 ml size 4 ea w 7- the village grocer quality foods specials in effect until closing sundaymarch 7 hours mon 1100700 tuesthurs 900700 fri 900800 sat 900600 sun 1000500 548 carlton road unionville 9401770