No free lunch next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid throws away the veggie and sometimes fruit from the school lunch because he is a picky eater. That is a waste! He is a picky eater. I am debating how complicated & time consuming is that if my kid buy lunch at school? They have 30 min lunch break only. My kid prefer me to pack lunch, but sometimes I want a break.

If you want a break, you can pay for it. They will have it, just not free for someone lazy who cannot be bothered packing a lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Allowing this to expire is such a perfect encapsulation of being a parent in a country that does the bare minimum for its children and then takes that away.

I’d argue that the taxes I pay which subsidize big Agra more than cover the cost of the damn lunch.

“Your kids, your problem.” I thought I’d post it first and save future posters the time.

Agree. Of all the things we could choose to spend tax revenues on, this seems like such a no-brainer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Allowing this to expire is such a perfect encapsulation of being a parent in a country that does the bare minimum for its children and then takes that away.

I’d argue that the taxes I pay which subsidize big Agra more than cover the cost of the damn lunch.

“Your kids, your problem.” I thought I’d post it first and save future posters the time.

Agree. Of all the things we could choose to spend tax revenues on, this seems like such a no-brainer.

MCPS needs so many things.. we could start with textbooks....

[Anonymous]

It doesn’t matter if we think the food is good or not but that it’s a available for kids. I also don’t like some kids getting singled out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is SO much wasted food with the free lunches. The kids throw away an enormous amount of food daily. Breakfast and lunch. It is so incredibly wasteful.

Waste or hungry kids. Not sure how to avoid both.

But even the kids who truly need the free lunches are throwing it away because it's that bad. Better for people like me and you who can afford to pay for lunches so the quality is higher and the kids who are on FARM to get it free because they need it.

USDA contracts make it hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is SO much wasted food with the free lunches. The kids throw away an enormous amount of food daily. Breakfast and lunch. It is so incredibly wasteful.

Waste or hungry kids. Not sure how to avoid both.

But even the kids who truly need the free lunches are throwing it away because it's that bad. Better for people like me and you who can afford to pay for lunches so the quality is higher and the kids who are on FARM to get it free because they need it.

USDA contracts make it hard.

Sadly it’s not how it works and it’s fed money, not mcps money. Most of it is frozen and packaged. What they get cheap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Allowing this to expire is such a perfect encapsulation of being a parent in a country that does the bare minimum for its children and then takes that away.

I’d argue that the taxes I pay which subsidize big Agra more than cover the cost of the damn lunch.

“Your kids, your problem.” I thought I’d post it first and save future posters the time.

Agree. Of all the things we could choose to spend tax revenues on, this seems like such a no-brainer.

MCPS needs so many things.. we could start with textbooks....

That ship has sailed- they don't want to use textbooks anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that MCPS will find a way to keep it going, at least in some schools, sort of like their universal free breakfast. I teach in a focus school and so many of our non-FARMs families participated, and my own kids did too. It was just such a stress relief to not have to worry about packing three lunches every night or worry about the cost. And I think it was good for the kids to get served a lunch that might not be their favorite thing, but that's what's for lunch so eat it or don't.

Its not free though. Someone (Tax payers) is paying for it and they worry about the cost and tax rates going up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that MCPS will find a way to keep it going, at least in some schools, sort of like their universal free breakfast. I teach in a focus school and so many of our non-FARMs families participated, and my own kids did too. It was just such a stress relief to not have to worry about packing three lunches every night or worry about the cost. And I think it was good for the kids to get served a lunch that might not be their favorite thing, but that's what's for lunch so eat it or don't.

Its not free though. Someone (Tax payers) is paying for it and they worry about the cost and tax rates going up

It was an extra, temporary, federal subsidy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It doesn’t matter if we think the food is good or not but that it’s a available for kids. I also don’t like some kids getting singled out.

They aren't singled out anymore. There is money on the lunch account (paid by parents or from the Farms program). The kids give their student number. Everyone does the same thing now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It doesn’t matter if we think the food is good or not but that it’s a available for kids. I also don’t like some kids getting singled out.

They aren't singled out anymore. There is money on the lunch account (paid by parents or from the Farms program). The kids give their student number. Everyone does the same thing now.

Right- it’s definitely better now.

That said, I would 100% support a properly funded lunch program that served heathy, quality food for all kids. There are many western countries that are way ahead of the U.S. on this, and I think childhood nutrition is worth the investment and should just be part of the overall cost of public school. But it will never happen here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am hopeful that MCPS will find a way to keep it going, at least in some schools, sort of like their universal free breakfast. I teach in a focus school and so many of our non-FARMs families participated, and my own kids did too. It was just such a stress relief to not have to worry about packing three lunches every night or worry about the cost. And I think it was good for the kids to get served a lunch that might not be their favorite thing, but that's what's for lunch so eat it or don't.

Its not free though. Someone (Tax payers) is paying for it and they worry about the cost and tax rates going up

It was an extra, temporary, federal subsidy

Coming from our tax money. Whether federal or state, we are the ones paying for all the food that is being thrown away, untouched, on a daily basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It doesn’t matter if we think the food is good or not but that it’s a available for kids. I also don’t like some kids getting singled out.

Nobody gets ‘singled out’. The kids get the money and can get food at school as needed.

We don’t need a wasteful program that feeds crap food to all kids, even the ones in Potomac, whose parents can more than afford to buy their kids lunches.

[Anonymous]

So long as school lunch programs are the other half of farm subsidies, a system designed to produce a lot of mediocre bulk food, we'll have sub-par meals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I worry most is that some FARM families may not realized they need to apply each year since last two years everyone received free lunches.

There’s always been a lot of families that don’t realize they’re eligible. We should really be doing free lunches for all students.

We should for need not kids who live in million dollar homes.

There's a point where it costs less to feed everybody than to figure out who is poor enough and only feed them. That's why some schools have free breakfast for all students, even the rich ones.

Baltimore City schools has free breakfast and lunch for everyone. No forms to fill out. The only problem with this is the way they estimate poverty now. Instead of those income eligibility forms, they now use food stamp info. The problem with that is that undocumented people can't get food stamps so it makes the poverty rate seem a lot lower than it really is. Lower poverty rate means less funding for schools.

The data that you are referring to only serves as one of four datasets. Plus children of the undocumented are eligible for food stamps if they are born here.
https://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/poverty/guidance/survey-data-collection.html

Would you apply for food stamps if you were illegal? Come on. Think! Even if their kids were born here, most illegal immigrants are not going to apply. They are scared. When illegal immigrants are arrested in my school's neighborhood, kids don't show up to school for a while. Their parents won't send them on field trips either. They won't allow them to be bussed to other schools for special programs.

You are deflecting from the point about data on poverty. There is no great undercount of poor kids. And yes, there are many, many citizen kids of undocumented parents who are on public benefits.