Free Lunches for all for 2026-2027 SY

[Anonymous]

My kid never eats the school lunch. She is a picky eater. Her school has free lunch, if a friend wants a second lunch but doesn’t have the money for the second lunch she will get the meal and give it to them. I do not think any kid should go hungry so I am ok with my tax money going to free lunches

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, let's just let parents do less and less for their children and let daddy state raise them. Feed your own kids please.

Just like you let daddy state educate them?
It's so foolish to think that lunch is the one think that should be excluded in free schooling.

School is not free.

Exactly. So lunch should be included.

Sure. That's fine. Breakfast and dinner should be at home.

[Anonymous]

You must all have little kids because otherwise, why didn't you complain about this during the Covid and post-Covid years? My kids got free lunch for over a year. It was great!

[Anonymous]

This is emblematic of what society has become. A three tiered system.

The accumulating class - a small group of people who have sufficient wealth to just sit around and watch their wealth continue to grow, sure they pay taxes but not enough to keep everything going.

The supporting class - an ever shrinking middle class who mostly stay above water and whose taxes keep everything going.

The mooch class - those who rely on the tax dollars of the other two classes to do nothing but still have a better standard of living than most of the people around the world. An ever growing segment of the population not at all interested in a hand up but want a perpetual hand out.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody, in this case the supporting class, primarily, is buying that free lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid never eats the school lunch. She is a picky eater. Her school has free lunch, if a friend wants a second lunch but doesn’t have the money for the second lunch she will get the meal and give it to them. I do not think any kid should go hungry so I am ok with my tax money going to free lunches

You are naive. Our neighbor worked in the cafeteria then and said there was so much waste that year. They used to try to get the employees to bring it home to avoid throwing it out. She told us how she didn’t blame the kids for not wanting to eat some of those meals that were basically not edible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The free covid lunches were soooooo terrible

It was literally the same food.

No it wanted. Mushy deli sandwiches made the day earlier, not the same.

Teacher here- It was absolutely not the same food. None of it was warm. It was all served stone cold, think frozen chicken fingers, chicken sandiwches and pretzels. It was worse than prison food. Inedible and all wasted, then the kids would be famished.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Free Lunch for all but better food would be ideal. Also, free lunch isnt allergy friendly and 1 in 13 kids have a food allergy. Because most of it is premade or processed, they can't confirm ingredients and there is risk of cross contamination. There are also not Halal or Kosher meals.

This. I’d rather the school spend on decent food and charge parents a nominal lunch fee, which is how I’ve seen it done in European schools where i *would* have eaten the food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The free covid lunches were soooooo terrible

It was literally the same food.

No it wanted. Mushy deli sandwiches made the day earlier, not the same.

Teacher here- It was absolutely not the same food. None of it was warm. It was all served stone cold, think frozen chicken fingers, chicken sandiwches and pretzels. It was worse than prison food. Inedible and all wasted, then the kids would be famished.

That is not true. That was the year both my kids started getting lunches more at school because they were free and it was easier for us. It was never served “stone cold.” There were never “frozen chicken fingers.”

[Anonymous]

I taught years ago where most of the kids were free lunch. We had wonderful food--that system had each school prepare it. The cookies were to die for.
But, even so, kids ate what they liked. The veggies--which were good--usually went untouched. This was back when teachers did not have duty free lunch, so I saw what they ate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are plenty of people who can afford it. I would focus on those who don't and make sure that kids are fed healthy tasty meals. NHS advises 24g sugar/day for children aged 7 to 10, WHO talks about 35-42 g a day for elementary age range. FCPS: breakfast: Maple Belgian Waffle 15g + Juice 13g, lunch: Yogurt pack 16g, fat free chocolate milk 20g. There are better options, but those are also on the table every single day.

Your numbers aren't accurate, because you're quoting total sugar, and not added sugar, which is what the NHS and WHO recommendations are for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The free covid lunches were soooooo terrible

It was literally the same food.

No it wanted. Mushy deli sandwiches made the day earlier, not the same.

Teacher here- It was absolutely not the same food. None of it was warm. It was all served stone cold, think frozen chicken fingers, chicken sandiwches and pretzels. It was worse than prison food. Inedible and all wasted, then the kids would be famished.

Maybe your school did things differently than ours, but my kids got hot food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The free covid lunches were soooooo terrible

It was literally the same food.

No it wanted. Mushy deli sandwiches made the day earlier, not the same.

Teacher here- It was absolutely not the same food. None of it was warm. It was all served stone cold, think frozen chicken fingers, chicken sandiwches and pretzels. It was worse than prison food. Inedible and all wasted, then the kids would be famished.

That is not true. That was the year both my kids started getting lunches more at school because they were free and it was easier for us. It was never served “stone cold.” There were never “frozen chicken fingers.”

DP ES teacher)
They were room temp chicken fingers. I’m sure they had been warmed and were basically room temp, not frozen when the kids got them. They also had sandwiches like turkey and American cheese on a bun. They weren’t “stone cold” and I wouldn’t say it was “inedible”. That’s an exaggeration. They were fairly simple though. This was spring of 2021. After that, we went back to the normal cafeteria line in the fall.

The salad bar we used to have a few years ago was pretty good. It would be nice to have that back. I’d also say that they have improved with some of the lunches this year and last.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Free Lunch for all but better food would be ideal. Also, free lunch isnt allergy friendly and 1 in 13 kids have a food allergy. Because most of it is premade or processed, they can't confirm ingredients and there is risk of cross contamination. There are also not Halal or Kosher meals.

This is America, go back to your own country if you want special foods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Free Lunch for all but better food would be ideal. Also, free lunch isnt allergy friendly and 1 in 13 kids have a food allergy. Because most of it is premade or processed, they can't confirm ingredients and there is risk of cross contamination. There are also not Halal or Kosher meals.

This should just be called the fake forum instead of the FCPS forum. People just come on here and say completely untrue things They claim to be teachers. They claim into have eaten the lunch. They claim all sorts of things. Here is the menu and it’s very clear about Kosher and Halal. Enough bashing the school food for not being French cuisine. Hungry kids eat it and my students eat it and they take extra from the share table. https://www.fcps.edu/system/files?file=forms/2025-11/fns-es-lunch-menu.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Free Lunch for all but better food would be ideal. Also, free lunch isnt allergy friendly and 1 in 13 kids have a food allergy. Because most of it is premade or processed, they can't confirm ingredients and there is risk of cross contamination. There are also not Halal or Kosher meals.

This is America, go back to your own country if you want special foods.

What are you talking about? PP is American. The FCPS menu does in fact have Halal and Kosher meals since they offer something vegetarian every day.