Free Food - Few Takers

[Anonymous]

I suppose none of my ancestors, most of whom are technically eligible for DAR, (and sar, if that is still a thing) --who pretty much all had eight kids (at least), and often starved, should have been more "responsible" too.

[Anonymous]

It was not about ONLY feeding children but entire families. So I know that my high-school the neighborhood that were clearing the snow took a lunch - break and ate with their children. Gimme a break, with this being touted as a failure because of numbers. If one child starves then it's a concern but if one child is fed it's a failure. Go fork yourselves, literally (pun intended).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's hard to be a curmudgeon on this topic with stories like this one:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/for-hungry-dc-kids-stuck-in-snow-schools-open-their-doors-for-meals/2016/01/25/b24c417e-c3a0-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_story.html?

What I find heartbreaking about this story is that if the couple had made a responsible choice, had 1 child, then they and their child would not have needed free food and would have been able to provide for their own family without public assistance. They could have ended the poverty cycle. Instead, they will dragged 5 kids through a lifetime of poverty and give them little hope of breaking out. Every school should be required to provide poverty education - that is how to get out of it and how to avoid it. It needs to be specific and pointed. By high school, every single kid should understand exactly how one breaks the poverty cycle and no the blanket answer "get an education" is not explicit and doesn't do anything. Half the time kids in high poverty areas believe getting high school diplomas is " getting an education". It's not. It is just the foundation for getting an education that helps you get a job and a living wage.

Let me guess...you're "pro-life".

[Anonymous]

So let's look forward: What is your school (public, private, independent or public charter) doing to make sure no child goes hungry?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So let's look forward: What is your school (public, private, independent or public charter) doing to make sure no child goes hungry?

While I think it's great families are being fed, it's really not the school's job.

I'm growing increasingly disgusted by the way DC infantalizes its citizens. They get free housing, food/stamps, cell phones, every type of assistance you can imagine. That's why you see a huge blanket of generational poverty in DC like you see no place else. What incentive do these people have to be responsible? No one talks to them about personal responsibility or making good choices.

Sure, feed hungry families perhaps find different neighborhood centers to do it in. For one, they're closer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let's look forward: What is your school (public, private, independent or public charter) doing to make sure no child goes hungry?

While I think it's great families are being fed, it's really not the school's job.

I'm growing increasingly disgusted by the way DC infantalizes its citizens. They get free housing, food/stamps, cell phones, every type of assistance you can imagine. That's why you see a huge blanket of generational poverty in DC like you see no place else. What incentive do these people have to be responsible? No one talks to them about personal responsibility or making good choices.

Sure, feed hungry families perhaps find different neighborhood centers to do it in. For one, they're closer.

Do NOT agree with your message, but DO agree the feeding should not be taking place at a school there are other emergency type sites that should be established in communities for all types of disasters so that people always know where to go, not have to look something up on the Internet to see if certain schools are feeding based on who can get there. It also means people are traveling across the city when they shouldn't be, use local neighborhood facilities and make them open to all who are hungry. Decisions about the safety of schools opening should not be based on feeding, but based on safety and access.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just saw a story about this in Channel 9. Yes wasn't well communicated but food was already paid for and would have gone into the trash. If only one person showed up (it was actually 500) I wouldn't care.

Ditto. This may not have been a perfect solution, but at least they tried to do something.

I don't have first-hand knowledge, but it wouldn't surprise me if Henderson pushed for this (DCPS mantra that some kids rely on school meals) and Bowser saw no political need to push back. The two don't seem to be BFFs. Henderson's self-made deadline is ticking down to 2017. Bowser, meanwhile, will have to deal with ongoing issues like record numbers of families without homes put in MD motels and the actual implementation of boundary changes.

If I were Bowser, I'd let the DME and Henderson do pretty much whatever they want and focus on housing and development.

In the meantime, as a taxpayer, I have no problem trying to show compassion to those in immediate need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's hard to be a curmudgeon on this topic with stories like this one:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/for-hungry-dc-kids-stuck-in-snow-schools-open-their-doors-for-meals/2016/01/25/b24c417e-c3a0-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_story.html?

What I find heartbreaking about this story is that if the couple had made a responsible choice, had 1 child, then they and their child would not have needed free food and would have been able to provide for their own family without public assistance. They could have ended the poverty cycle. Instead, they will dragged 5 kids through a lifetime of poverty and give them little hope of breaking out. Every school should be required to provide poverty education - that is how to get out of it and how to avoid it. It needs to be specific and pointed. By high school, every single kid should understand exactly how one breaks the poverty cycle and no the blanket answer "get an education" is not explicit and doesn't do anything. Half the time kids in high poverty areas believe getting high school diplomas is " getting an education". It's not. It is just the foundation for getting an education that helps you get a job and a living wage.

Let me guess...you're "pro-life".

I'm pro choice, and she's absolutely right.

You do know that Margaret Sanger started Planned Parenthood to eliminate poor black babies don't you? It really was founded as a eugenics project. There's nothing more supportive of ending the generational poverty cycle than convincing poor people to stop procreating via abortion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So let's look forward: What is your school (public, private, independent or public charter) doing to make sure no child goes hungry?

While I think it's great families are being fed, it's really not the school's job.

I'm growing increasingly disgusted by the way DC infantalizes its citizens. They get free housing, food/stamps, cell phones, every type of assistance you can imagine. That's why you see a huge blanket of generational poverty in DC like you see no place else. What incentive do these people have to be responsible? No one talks to them about personal responsibility or making good choices.

Sure, feed hungry families perhaps find different neighborhood centers to do it in. For one, they're closer.

Do NOT agree with your message, but DO agree the feeding should not be taking place at a school there are other emergency type sites that should be established in communities for all types of disasters so that people always know where to go, not have to look something up on the Internet to see if certain schools are feeding based on who can get there. It also means people are traveling across the city when they shouldn't be, use local neighborhood facilities and make them open to all who are hungry. Decisions about the safety of schools opening should not be based on feeding, but based on safety and access.

Yet that's exactly why schools are open today: free food. If it were about safety, they'd be closed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So let's look forward: What is your school (public, private, independent or public charter) doing to make sure no child goes hungry?

Educating them, so that they can move forward in life and not follow the footsteps of the previous generations that have led them into their mess.