[imgbelt img=bidders.jpeg]Many students in Washington, D.C., are eating three meals a day at school. We know low income kids can eat a reduced-price breakfast and lunch. Now in 99 D.C. schools, these children are eating an early dinner. The child provery rate among black children in the nation’s capital has risen to 43%, from 31% in 2007.• One of the farms that produced salmonella-laden eggs resumed shipping after receiving an okay from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Hillendale Farms is now selling eggs again, but Wright County Egg, the company owned by Jack DeCoster that was at the center of the outbreak, has not be cleared by the FDA.More than 1,500 cases of salmonella illnesses were linked to eggs produced by Wright County and Hillendale. • The Progressive Farmer has a great story about a group of farmers that banded together in south-central Illinois to buy land as it came up for sale. The idea was to keep land ownership local.Farmland is hot these days in the investment world, and as prime parcels come up for sale, bidders are coming from Wall Street. The local farmers in Macoupin County did the calculations and figured that “if the property remained in local hands, it would mean another $500 per acre spent in the community on everything from bank loans to seed and other inputs—and closing costs on the land itself,” writes Des Keller.The story tells how the farmers (above) bought 2,462 acres for $15.2 million, the majority of the land that had come up for sale. There were 280 registered bidders and the sale took seven hours. “We weren’t buying to sell it but to farm it the rest of our days,” said one farmer.