There Are:
Kids whose parents can afford to pay for lunches at school……get hot meals.
Kids whose parents cannot afford anything, get hot meals for free.
Kids whose parents fall in the middle, who are struggling to pay other bills, get pulled out of line and are given cold cheese sandwiches.
Imagine yourself in the cafeteria, with a cold cheese sandwich; it sucks that your parents didn’t pay the lunch bill to the school. But I think it sucks more when the ‘rich’ kids and the ‘welfare’ kids are laughing at you and your cheese sandwich.
“We’ve heard stories from moms coming in saying their child was pulled out of the lunch line and given a cheese sandwich," said Nancy Pope, director of the New Mexico Collaborative to End Hunger. “One woman said her daughter never wants to go back to school.”
these parents should get off their duff and either qualify for free lunch - or give their kids a lunch to take to school. Can’t expect our schools to do everything - hey it is a ‘courtesy meal’
That sucks. Not that cheese sandwiches are bad (I love them), but singling out those kids is not cool. My daughter goes to a school where 99% qualify for free meals. So they never charge her for lunch when really they should. I used to send money with her, but I don’t really like her carrying around cash at school, even if it’s just $3. Then I got a nasty note saying I owed $20. So I sent the money with her, but they didn’t collect it. I finally took it to the office and gave it to them to sort out. She’s still not getting regularly charged for food. On the rare day when they ask her for money (which she doesn’t have) they still feed her what everyone else gets.
I could never afford to buy my lunch in high school so my mom packed me one. Why isn’t that an option for all of these kids? Even the poorest probably have food stamps for sandwiches.
My Mom raised 9 children and my Dad was in a blue collar job and we never had a meal from the cafeteria. My Mom made us a lunch everyday.
Not sure what is so complicated about that.
Me neither.
I ate a sandwich (usually peanut butter and jelly), a piece of fruit, and some kind of twinkie like thing, damn near every day of the week all the way through High School!
It’s not so much making the lunch that’s the hard part…It’s forgetting the damn thing at home that’s the problem
Weird thing is that even in Pre-K were they are there for a whopping 2 hours they feed the kids. On occasion I forget to bring it or the kid does and they feed him, then I owe money. I pretty sure they aren’t going to starve in 2 hours…specially since I just fed him breakfast. However that last part isn’t a given for a lot of kids I guess.
I ate a sandwich (usually peanut butter and jelly), a piece of fruit, and some kind of twinkie like thing, damn near every day of the week all the way through High School!
there is only one way to cure stupidity, and that is to make it HURT.
The problem is that in many cases the only people that suffer are the kids. The parents, in many cases, don’t give a crap if their kid is hungry or not.
The issue in some schools became so bad that kids where so hungry it became disruptive to the learning process not only for the hungry kids but all of them.
My personal opinion is likely similar to yours and that if you can’t feed your kids, they should be taken away. I’m not talking about a parent missing breakfast or something like that, I’m talking about chronic no lunch, no breakfast situations. In most cases it’s not an issue of “We don’t have money for food”, but rather it’s issues of I don’t feel like going shopping or making a lunch. In the worst cases the parents aren’t even home.
You can’t keep them from having them, although I would support sterilization in many cases, but you can remove them from poor situations.
I agree with you, Casey and Lorenzop = Pack a Lunch, that’s what I did.
Parents send their children to public schools to get a ‘free’ education. Why should the ‘free’ education include free lunches?
When I fly, I pay for the flight. Not long ago, included with the flight was a free meal. Many airlines have cut costs and eliminated the meal that used to come with the flight, so now I pack my own lunch.
In ‘tough economic times like these’ why not eliminate all school lunch programs? That would save some serious $$…make the parents pack a lunch instead, right?
…But back to the topic, school lunch programs will not go away.
I still have a big problem with the humiliation associated with cheese sandwiches. I’m not trying to be funny. I mean it. I’d hate to be one of those kids.
I think its sad and pathetic that americans think the nanny state should be feeding people’s kids.
if americans can’t feed their own kids they need to NOT HAVE KIDS.
there is only one way to cure stupidity, and that is to make it HURT.
yeah make the damn kids starve because their parents lost their jobs! serves them right for being born and not knowing there was a recession coming…stupid damn kids.
Its not about that man. Life isn’t fair. It just is, and if you ignore reality and give handouts to those who need it most
well you get silly shit like this situation
and too many kids
yeah make the damn kids starve because their parents lost their jobs! serves them right for being born and not knowing there was a recession coming…stupid damn kids.
***yeah make the damn kids starve because their parents lost their jobs! serves them right for being born and not knowing there was a recession coming…stupid damn kids. ***
Well, let’s see…there’s unemployment comp (for the fewer than 1 in 10 that actually lost their jobs), there’s food stamps, there’s welfare, there’re food banks, et.al…but out of all that, we sure can’t expect the parents to come up with $10 a week or so to make the kid lunch.
You are ignoring reality. Malnourished kids are very expensive long tem drags on the economy. Much better just to feed them up front, maybe even educate them a bit too, and hope they develop into productive members of society than it is to throw them on the scrap heap at 10 years old and then have to spend $100,000 a year for the next 50 housing them in a maximum security penitentiary.
You haven’t seen silly shit until you’ve seen a couple of million hungry kids on the streets.
oh yeah, because nowadays a single blue-collar income is enough to have a house and feed a family of 11? yeah, right…
Well, my sister has 7 children and my brother in law works in a printing shop a few hours from Toronto.
The reason they make it is because they live within their means. No eating out, 1 car, and a lot less “wants” than most. They are far and away the happiest family I have ever known and never feel like they miss out on anything.
I am in India and can tell you that people in North America can get by on a fraction (ie. less than 50%) in what they have now. I am quietly rejoicing over the economic problems because people need that wake up call.
I was back there at Christmas and most people’s idea of suffering is that they can only have 3 presents. People have no idea on how little it takes to live.
