Blame congress for not doing anything about this. They had the opportunity and they chose not to renew the free lunch program. It's pretty disgusting, IMO.

Anonymous wrote:that is fine with us, we can afford it but we saved about $900 dollars not buying breakfast or lunch for our 8th grader. ball park $5 per lunch and breakfast *180=$900, so if we had 2 kids attend school we would've spend $1800 dollars, its a shame they are no longer doing this program, I know if you're really poor you can free lunch, but still the middle class needs help too. our HHI is for 2021 was $103,212. we have 1 DC still in school the others are alll grown.

$103,212 and you think you need help with lunch? I recognize cost of living here is high, but this is ridiculous.

When I was in high school my parents couldn’t afford school lunch, but I didn’t qualify for free lunches. So they’d pack a lunch for me….generic chips in sandwich bags, bologna and cheese sandwich, etc. But in high school kids are bullies, and so I was too embarrassed to bring the packed lunch when everyone else was buying. So what happens is I never ate lunch, and I would be STARVING at lunch watching everyone else eat. I would just say I wasn’t hungry when. they asked why I wasn’t eating.

So yes, the free lunch program does help….

We can easily afford food for our kids' lunches (they eat breakfast at home), but the sunsetting of this program is one of the symptoms of our political dysfunction that I'm most frustrated by.

First, I spend a lot of volunteer time with service delivery programs for low income families, and any time there is a requirement to jump through a hoop for a benefit, even if you clearly qualify for it, the utilization rate goes down. Kids from families that struggle to afford food will go hungry, just as they did pre-pandemic.

Second, the COVID program actually raised the subsidy amount for meals, which gave school districts a lot more flexibility for food choices (much of which was needed due to supply chain issue). In my kids' district there was a notable, and successful, effort to improve the quality, nutritional content, and sustainability of our lunch program. This builds a foundation for a lifetime of health...and will save us healthcare costs as a country in the long run.

Third, there are unquestionably equity benefits of kids all basically eating the same thing instead of having noticeable differences between families of different means.

I know that school lunch programs can be improved in many ways, but I thinks universal lunch was a step toward progress. As with so many other things, this is a step backward.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why was the free lunch program started? Was it due to the pandemic? If you didn’t lose a job/income during the pandemic, why were you given free lunch?

There has been a push to make it free all the time outside of the pandemic. Why do rich people "need" lunch? Well the more barriers you put in place for the poor people, the less the poor kids actually GET to eat at school. There is solid research that when everyone is treated the same about school food (no paperwork, no special program etc) the needy kids get more food. Hungry kids don't learn well.

So one way to look at it is "why do rich people need free lunch?" and the answer is "it removes free lunch stigma and GREATLY help the kids who can't afford it".

I am furious at Biden for not being able to keep this. And the child tax credit. Poor kids just continue to get dumped on.

Why should you get a tax break for having kids? If it’s so vital to your finances, you should’ve had one less child.

Or one fewer. Lol.

I thought it was determined that it was cheaper to give everyone the free lunch then administer the program to determine and monitor who should and should not get it?

It is.

Yep. Means-testing costs money. We don't do it to save money, we do it to punish poor people.

We punish poor people by giving them free food?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why was the free lunch program started? Was it due to the pandemic? If you didn’t lose a job/income during the pandemic, why were you given free lunch?

There has been a push to make it free all the time outside of the pandemic. Why do rich people "need" lunch? Well the more barriers you put in place for the poor people, the less the poor kids actually GET to eat at school. There is solid research that when everyone is treated the same about school food (no paperwork, no special program etc) the needy kids get more food. Hungry kids don't learn well.

So one way to look at it is "why do rich people need free lunch?" and the answer is "it removes free lunch stigma and GREATLY help the kids who can't afford it".

I am furious at Biden for not being able to keep this. And the child tax credit. Poor kids just continue to get dumped on.

Why should you get a tax break for having kids? If it’s so vital to your finances, you should’ve had one less child.

Or one fewer. Lol.

I thought it was determined that it was cheaper to give everyone the free lunch then administer the program to determine and monitor who should and should not get it?

It is.

Yep. Means-testing costs money. We don't do it to save money, we do it to punish poor people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why was the free lunch program started? Was it due to the pandemic? If you didn’t lose a job/income during the pandemic, why were you given free lunch?

There has been a push to make it free all the time outside of the pandemic. Why do rich people "need" lunch? Well the more barriers you put in place for the poor people, the less the poor kids actually GET to eat at school. There is solid research that when everyone is treated the same about school food (no paperwork, no special program etc) the needy kids get more food. Hungry kids don't learn well.

So one way to look at it is "why do rich people need free lunch?" and the answer is "it removes free lunch stigma and GREATLY help the kids who can't afford it".

I am furious at Biden for not being able to keep this. And the child tax credit. Poor kids just continue to get dumped on.

This. The food isn't that expensive; the administrative and logistical costs are relatively high. Make it free for everyone, and you just made administration essentially free and eliminated the hurdle to any kid who needs it to be fed, including any stigma. I mean, giving kids food seems like a good idea to me, and so what if a few kids get food who don't "need" it?

I don't know why you're mad at Biden, though; Rs in Congress refused to extend it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why was the free lunch program started? Was it due to the pandemic? If you didn’t lose a job/income during the pandemic, why were you given free lunch?

There has been a push to make it free all the time outside of the pandemic. Why do rich people "need" lunch? Well the more barriers you put in place for the poor people, the less the poor kids actually GET to eat at school. There is solid research that when everyone is treated the same about school food (no paperwork, no special program etc) the needy kids get more food. Hungry kids don't learn well.

So one way to look at it is "why do rich people need free lunch?" and the answer is "it removes free lunch stigma and GREATLY help the kids who can't afford it".

I am furious at Biden for not being able to keep this. And the child tax credit. Poor kids just continue to get dumped on.

Why should you get a tax break for having kids? If it’s so vital to your finances, you should’ve had one less child.

Or one fewer. Lol.

I thought it was determined that it was cheaper to give everyone the free lunch then administer the program to determine and monitor who should and should not get it?

It is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why was the free lunch program started? Was it due to the pandemic? If you didn’t lose a job/income during the pandemic, why were you given free lunch?

There has been a push to make it free all the time outside of the pandemic. Why do rich people "need" lunch? Well the more barriers you put in place for the poor people, the less the poor kids actually GET to eat at school. There is solid research that when everyone is treated the same about school food (no paperwork, no special program etc) the needy kids get more food. Hungry kids don't learn well.

So one way to look at it is "why do rich people need free lunch?" and the answer is "it removes free lunch stigma and GREATLY help the kids who can't afford it".

I am furious at Biden for not being able to keep this. And the child tax credit. Poor kids just continue to get dumped on.

Why are you furious with Biden instead of obstructionist Republicans?

It’s always the republicans’ fault. Dems have power, and don’t know how to wield it. Hey I got an idea, let’s vote more of reactionary idiots that go for easy wins because the base cannot think outside their conditioning. Maybe dems will install the first latinx homophobic trans trans gendered woman to head the treasury. Dems are a joke. They are like infants.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why was the free lunch program started? Was it due to the pandemic? If you didn’t lose a job/income during the pandemic, why were you given free lunch?

There has been a push to make it free all the time outside of the pandemic. Why do rich people "need" lunch? Well the more barriers you put in place for the poor people, the less the poor kids actually GET to eat at school. There is solid research that when everyone is treated the same about school food (no paperwork, no special program etc) the needy kids get more food. Hungry kids don't learn well.

So one way to look at it is "why do rich people need free lunch?" and the answer is "it removes free lunch stigma and GREATLY help the kids who can't afford it".

I am furious at Biden for not being able to keep this. And the child tax credit. Poor kids just continue to get dumped on.

Why should you get a tax break for having kids? If it’s so vital to your finances, you should’ve had one less child.

Or one fewer. Lol.

I thought it was determined that it was cheaper to give everyone the free lunch then administer the program to determine and monitor who should and should not get it?

Just send your kids to the schools where everyone gets free lunch.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why was the free lunch program started? Was it due to the pandemic? If you didn’t lose a job/income during the pandemic, why were you given free lunch?

There has been a push to make it free all the time outside of the pandemic. Why do rich people "need" lunch? Well the more barriers you put in place for the poor people, the less the poor kids actually GET to eat at school. There is solid research that when everyone is treated the same about school food (no paperwork, no special program etc) the needy kids get more food. Hungry kids don't learn well.

So one way to look at it is "why do rich people need free lunch?" and the answer is "it removes free lunch stigma and GREATLY help the kids who can't afford it".

I am furious at Biden for not being able to keep this. And the child tax credit. Poor kids just continue to get dumped on.

Why should you get a tax break for having kids? If it’s so vital to your finances, you should’ve had one less child.

Or one fewer. Lol.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why was the free lunch program started? Was it due to the pandemic? If you didn’t lose a job/income during the pandemic, why were you given free lunch?

There has been a push to make it free all the time outside of the pandemic. Why do rich people "need" lunch? Well the more barriers you put in place for the poor people, the less the poor kids actually GET to eat at school. There is solid research that when everyone is treated the same about school food (no paperwork, no special program etc) the needy kids get more food. Hungry kids don't learn well.

So one way to look at it is "why do rich people need free lunch?" and the answer is "it removes free lunch stigma and GREATLY help the kids who can't afford it".

I am furious at Biden for not being able to keep this. And the child tax credit. Poor kids just continue to get dumped on.

Why should you get a tax break for having kids? If it’s so vital to your finances, you should’ve had one less child.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why was the free lunch program started? Was it due to the pandemic? If you didn’t lose a job/income during the pandemic, why were you given free lunch?

There has been a push to make it free all the time outside of the pandemic. Why do rich people "need" lunch? Well the more barriers you put in place for the poor people, the less the poor kids actually GET to eat at school. There is solid research that when everyone is treated the same about school food (no paperwork, no special program etc) the needy kids get more food. Hungry kids don't learn well.

So one way to look at it is "why do rich people need free lunch?" and the answer is "it removes free lunch stigma and GREATLY help the kids who can't afford it".

I am furious at Biden for not being able to keep this. And the child tax credit. Poor kids just continue to get dumped on.

Why are you furious with Biden instead of obstructionist Republicans?

I'm surprised DCUMers would even let their kids eat lunchroom lunches. I send lunch with lots of fruits and vegetables because school lunches aren't all that healthy.