Lunch Shaming in school - Is free lunch really free

oops

originally posted by: CharlesT
Started in 1956. In elementary grades, I carried a lunch. In Jr. and Sr. high schools, I don't ever remember eating at school. I had breakfast at home and supper with the family at home every evening. What has happened between then and now? Families are not feeding their children at home any more. Why? I don't know.

No more long term lunch breaks. Everyone is working too far and you only get like 30 mins / 1:00 hr of break.

Also before that, School lunches used to be free in cafeteria. Not anymore. You have to pay for it. Schools use to have nurses and they are also gone. In school you are either on your own or the teachers takes care of the children.
Also you forgot that mothers are working now helping to pay taxes for your own house. So no one is cooking at home in lunch time for children.

a reply to: JAGStorm

gee, and if the parents are working? should they be shamed? should their kids be shamed??
heck, your kid's bus driver kids could very well be on a free or reduced lunch program. same with many of the guys we so often send off to fight in some stupid war!

a reply to: makemap

I think the lunches only cost something like .50 when I was going to school.
when my kids were in school, it was somewhere close to 2.00 maybe more.
now it's 2.50 or 2.80 depending on weather you are in grade school or secondary school..

the op is complaining that the some schools are deciding to make it free for all students.
there's just no sense of responsibility he whines.
well, ya know what anyone on food stamps automatically quailfies for free lunch, or at least that was how it was when my kids went. and, many who made too much to qualify for food stamps also qualified for free or reduced lunch. it was based on income and family size. so, the people these schools are extending it out to are far from irresponsible, non-working families! it's the struggling middle class that everyone is saying they want to help!!!

originally posted by: dawnstar
a reply to: JAGStorm

gee, and if the parents are working? should they be shamed? should their kids be shamed??
heck, your kid's bus driver kids could very well be on a free or reduced lunch program. same with many of the guys we so often send off to fight in some stupid war!

Gee and if parents are working, should they be drained with more property taxes?

a reply to: JAGStorm


Cant speak for everyone but my son will be eating dinner with us, and if I am working the off shift he will sit with mom and eat.

There will be no debate on this, I hated it as a kid... miss it as an adult, its that simple thing having mom or dad make your favorite meal as a reward or you b-day that leads to another good memory when you are older.

a reply to: ketsuko

Umm sure. You are being drained now for the free lunch program maybe to the point where you feeling lucky if you can send a peanut butter sandwich to school. Do you really See the fairness of having your tax money used to feed some other kid?

Our elementary school used to give out free bottles of milk during the mid-morning break. Usually there were a few bottles left over and if you asked nicely, the janitor would let you get one. But Mrs. T (the milk snatcher) decided to cut this free service, and many students couldn't concentrate on their work after this time because they were hungry.

Many students would walk home for lunch (between 12.10pm and 2.00pm) or go to a friends house for lunch. Others had the school meals which were prepared centrally and giant stainless steel vat's of green peas, mashed potatoes and tomato soup would be served.

a reply to: dawnstar

Sure. Why not? My tax money already goes to bombs, wars, and efforts I don’t believe in at all.

a reply to: JAGStorm

When I went to school in the 50's most brought lunch,a few ate in Cafeteria,I never recall anyone commenting on others lunch,and in those days if a kid was hungry the school would feed them free,how it was in Long Beach Calif

In the city which my kids are attending school this year...they are offering free breakfast and lunch to ALL children. It is part of a federally funded program called Community Eligibility Provision. It is based on the percentage of students who would qualify for free or reduced lunch within the community, schools/city as a whole. Since the number is so high for this area they are offering it across the board for everyone instead of making folks apply for it. Basically what I heard after I went reading up on it... is that this city has more poor folks than average so it is being offered as a whole. So the bigger question is why is income levels so low in this city compared to the cost of living ?

I am happy that it is available. It came at a time when I can use the help !

I've never taken advantage of any system or program. I've worked my entire life. I have been a contributor my whole life. No laziness here...no using the system to get freebees just so I can be lazy. Not everyone should be categorized that way just because something like this will truly help them. You just don't know the individual circumstances of any one person to make a general statement that folks are free loading the system... until you've walked in their shoes. I know we all do it... categorize folks based on our own opinions and what not.

Ooh and I'm not ashamed... I work hard for my family and always have... and no I'm not rich. I don't really think I am average anymore either. I'd say the only time I was average was when I was married with a double income and no children. Now that I am not married I reverted back to lower than average like I was before I got married and had the double income... only difference now is I have 2 children. I work hard and make sacrifices to make it all work ... and occasionally my family helps me out when needed.

We make do...

Anywho...

This is a god send for me right now... Thank You... I can breather a little easier :-)

leolady

Some schools are going so far as to provide free lunches and breakfast to all students regardless of income so there is no shaming at all. They call it free for everyone. We know it is not free, it is being paid by people that are being bled dry. 

Mathematically the outrage doesnt make much sense. Schools/governments have been providing meals to porer students for a long time now. What's new now is that they are also paying for kids who can afford the meals ...
But so what that doesnt change the math for those "being bled dry"; they have always paid for the pore kids meals through their taxes, now instead of giving their kids the money for lunch they pay it through their taxes as well. They are still paying for both their kids and the pore kids, that hasn't changed.

originally posted by: dawnstar
a reply to: ketsuko

Umm sure. You are being drained now for the free lunch program maybe to the point where you feeling lucky if you can send a peanut butter sandwich to school. Do you really See the fairness of having your tax money used to feed some other kid?

Typical.

Soak the ones who have money until they don't and then they'll feel glad to have the free stuff we give them too and need it.

What if we don't want to need "free" stuff?

At what point is it wrong to decide that you're simply going to take so much from people that they'll be forced to be poor too?

a reply to: ketsuko

t what point is it wrong to decide that you're simply going to take so much from people that they'll be forced to be poor too?

and when are people gonna realize that it's better to give people the little bit of help that they need instead of making them struggle through not being able to make it, and ending up needing lots of help!!!

as someone mentioned above.. this program is for areas where there is a high percentage of poorer families using the free/reduced lunch programs to begin with. it costs money to process those applications every year, maybe they figure the cost of bringing in the rest of the people will actually be less than the cost to process the applications. and, gee, every parent can rest easy knowing that their kid will be able to eat while at school, even when one of the members of their family gets sick and ends up having to sink a hundred or so dollars into the medicine they need to get better, so they can get back to work... SO THEY CAN CONTINUE BEING RESPONSIBLE AND PRODUCTIVE!!!

Poverty is rampant in developed Countries and covering it up only benefits the few rich elite who run these Countries.

Urban schools are full of hungry Kids.....this is a Village problem not an individual Family problem...it is endemic.....every School should be supported in feeding Kids at Lunch by the Community and Government.

Kids arent Kids for very long....we are all responsible for helping each other...and we have the power to force our governments to pitch in as well if this is what WE WANT.


Expose the hidden poverty in Developed Countries and then it will be easier to understand and stop poverty in under-developed countries in the future when they evolve.

a reply to: dawnstar

This is where I have a problem. Those kids grow up thinking "help" is the norm and not the exception.
They soon see lunches, healthcare, cellphones, housing as "free" things that someone else NEEDS to provide.
This is how poverty perpetuates.

There is an old Asian saying, A cracked pot will always leak no matter how many times you fill it.

quote]originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: dawnstar

This is where I have a problem. Those kids grow up thinking "help" is the norm and not the exception.
They soon see lunches, healthcare, cellphones, housing as "free" things that someone else NEEDS to provide.
This is how poverty perpetuates.

There is an old Asian saying, A cracked pot will always leak no matter how many times you fill it.


Who cracked the Pot...or was it faulty to begin with...and whoever built it or cracked it should have fixed it by now right.

What a very silly statemant, "shaming leads to them working harder to better themselves". NO IT DON'T.
Shaming leads to inferiority complexes which leads to suicides.
Oh, you hard done to US citizens.
Tax rates for the US and the UK, Low rate UK 20%, US lowe rate 12% rising to 22%.
Middle rate US 22% to 24% but the UK rate jumps to 40%. Now your 24% is really hard done to.
High rate US 24% to 32%, UK rate whoops 45%. So I would generally keep quiet about being hard put on about you taxes.

a reply to: JAGStorm

umm ya, sure....
it's much better to create a lower class then the poor, one filled with taxpayers..
who can't afford the healthcare that their taxes pay for the poor...
who can't afford the decent clothes for their kids, that their taxes pay for the poor....
who can't afford the school lunches that their taxes pay for the poor...
who can't afford the medicines their kids need that their taxes pay for the poor....
who can't afford the housing that their taxes pay for the poor...
who can't afford to send their kid's to the colleges that their taxes pay for the poor...
who sometimes live so far out of the norm that those poor kids tease and ridicule their kids for being so "poor"!!!
and we just won't talk about how sometimes, gee, they end having to separate so one parent can be considered "poor" just so that the kids can't get the medical care they need to live!!!
in those cases, we seem to be literally breaking the danged leaking pot, instead of trying to fix it so it will hold enough water to be useful!!

but continue on saying how you want to help the struggling middle class and working families.

a reply to: crayzeed
Oh, I forgot The US purchase tax runs at 4% to 8%, the UKs is running at 20% at the moment. Oh, you are hard done to.