Anonymous wrote:Hungry children COULD get food to eat if their parents prioritized more effectively. Take up your beef with them. Period.

You sound like a complete A$$! Pray that you never fall on hard times.

I'm quite sure that school lunches are NOT having a big effect on people's taxes. It is such a infinitesimal part of the federal budget.

Besides good grief these are CHILDREN!

To all those who would begrudge the kids their FARMS lunches, please remember that the majority of these kids have parents who are working poor. Not sitting-on-their-ass-taking-welfare-for-generations-poor, but working poor. Their parents are the ones cleaning your office (or home) or stocking your grocery store or taking your order at McD's or Panera. If you want people to be doing these jobs for low pay so your sandwich or groceries or maid service doesn't go up in price, you're accepting the need to help some kids eat. I'm sure these kids would rather not be taking assistance, and I'm sure they'd rather be rich and living in nice homes, but kids don't get to make that choice. And their best chance to break the cycle is to be well-fed so they can concentrate in school, go to college and get better jobs.

OP, I hope things turn around for you!

When I went to school in the early to mid 90s the kids that got free or reduced were given tickets to use in the cafeteria. I don't recall anyone being particularly embarrassed by it. Folks are simply too sensitive these days, everything has to be made easy. No issues ever. We are becoming a weak people.

At my son's elementary school, everyone who is observant knows who receives free lunch or not. None of the non-free lunch kids eat school; they all bring lunch from home.

Anonymous wrote:I guess that's why our school bristles when I insist my kids pay with cash, on the rare occasions they buy lunch. Oh well. Too bad. I'm not filling up a debit account when cash is just fine. The school can adjust.

What do you mean by "the school bristles?" The lunch lady who's taking the payment? Probably because she doesn't have much change since no one else uses cash.

I guess that's why our school bristles when I insist my kids pay with cash, on the rare occasions they buy lunch. Oh well. Too bad. I'm not filling up a debit account when cash is just fine. The school can adjust.

Does the child know if they are getting free/reduced lunches when they put in the PIN?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
About 90% of the children at the school where I teach are FARMS. So, we pretty much all know.


Holy cow. Where the hell is this?


There are several local schools with this FARMs rate. Why so surprised?


Because that's an incredible (and unfair) burden on the taxpayers.


So, let's redistribute some wealth! I think YOU can make it on $50k a year. Can I sign you up to donate the rest to relieve the poor taxpayers?


No, you have it backwards. The American taxpayer has had enough. You bleeding hearts can form your own charity for this. Everyone wins.

No. Nobody wins when kids go to school hungry. Nobody wins when kids have to overcome the real issues of poverty to make it through the day. Nobody wins.

You, PP, have it backwards. And hopefully, you will never get cancer, be faced with persistent joblessness, or divorce, because you will discover, painfully, how easy it is to need the social safety net.

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine people who begrudge children getting a meal. They didn't ask to be poor. But of the grace of God...

ThisThisThis!

OP, we are in Prince George's County and all the kids have accounts with a PIN number to pay for their lunch. I pay online to my child's account. Kids who are on Free and Reduced meals just put in their PIN number and get their meals charged to their account as $0.00 or $0.50 or however much it is. NO ONE knows who is getting free lunch if they are just buying lunch.

I think there's also the possibility for kids to buy extras like some ice cream. I don't think that is covered by the free lunch program though, so there might be a problem if your child wants to use his/her card for a la cart items. I don't know how that works.

My school has more than 90% on a free or reduced priced lunch so everyone gets a free breakfast and lunch for the most part. At the other school I worked at, the kids would use a card when they "bought" lunch and it was debited out of their account. The kids on free lunch used the same card so nobody knew their parents weren't paying for it.

Anonymous wrote:Hungry children COULD get food to eat if their parents prioritized more effectively. Take up your beef with them. Period.

Please think hard about what you say. Poverty can happen to anyone. I agree some of it is a result of poor decision making and I have mixed feeling about that, but many decent, hard working people need help due to somehting outside of their control. A job loss, a health or family crisis, or just a low paying job can throw anyone over to the other side of the road. In fact, I know 2 couple where both husband and wife worked and all of them losing decent jobs within months of each other. In one case going from a 200K lifestyle to $0. They sold their home and have moved in with parents until they get back on their feet. None of them have had luck finding a new job and they are all willing to take significant pay cuts. It is very scary if you think about it.

Op, take food stamps and lunch. It is not a big deal. You and we pay taxes so if or when we need the help it is there for you. We got food stamps for my mil. Just use self check out and no one will care. It is a debit card. That $100 was a help...anything helps. I had no issue helping her use it.

To the PP who could qualify for food stamps. Do it! If you qualify, you qualify. I have known a few people who have had to get food stamps for a period of time in their lives.

Also, to add, I got free lunch while in high school and my school used a punch card system. We got our cards from the cafeteria manager at the beginning of the week and got it punched when we went to pay. So yeah, everyone knew which kids got free/reduced lunch. I didn't think anything of it thought because of my close group of friends, 3 out of 5 of us got free lunch.