Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

And how does one go about finding these schools around the nation?

Check the APS website for starters:

Barcroft, Barrett, Carlin Springs, Dr. Charles R. Drew and Randolph elementary schools are CEP schools and will provide meals at no cost next school year.

Is this a new program? We were Barcroft but meals weren't free for everyone when we were there.

I don't know - Ask APS. That's directly from their website.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I can't speak for the PP you're judging; but that person did say they CAN afford it.
Nevertheless, there is always a cut-off line and therefore always people who just miss the cut-off. You never know what the financial situation is for any family. There may be a lot of additional health expenses for a child with special needs or illnesses; student loans and/or home mortgages to pay; etc.

The point, I believe, is that there are a lot of families considered middle income who are having a more difficult time making ends meet with inflation, yearly rising property taxes, more and more fees for everything - and increased fees, and always having to pay the full fee for everything. A family with an income of $103K/year is expected to pay the same as a family with an income of $203K or $250K+/year. Logically, the $250K family would have significantly more discretionary income to spend on all these things without feeling as much of a pinch.

+1 to everything. People move here because the salary looks amazing. After a couple months they realize how much it actually costs to live here, add a bit of inflation and then $103k doesn't look that rich.

Thank you for this post, OP. It was actually more interesting than I thought it would be and I now support universal free school lunch. I hadn't considered the cost of running the FRL program and the greater simplicity and efficiency of just providing meals for everyone.

I agree with the poster who said they'd support universal free lunch if they do something about the nutrition and quality of the meals. Ketchup should not be considered a vegetable. 4 fried chicken nuggets is not nutrition. USDA puts out daily nutrition guidelines....they should be ensuring the food under their program is actually healthy and nutritious. We need to start by going back to preparing food on-site at each school and get rid of a lot of the pre-packaged processed crap that is contributing greatly to the obesity problem. Concurrently, we need to re-instate more recess and movement breaks and more substantial PE programs through 12th grade. Why only 2 years (4 semesters, so only one full year) of PE in high school? The point is to instill a healthy lifestyle....but apparently just until you're 15 or 16.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

And how does one go about finding these schools around the nation?

Check the APS website for starters:

Barcroft, Barrett, Carlin Springs, Dr. Charles R. Drew and Randolph elementary schools are CEP schools and will provide meals at no cost next school year.

Is this a new program? We were Barcroft but meals weren't free for everyone when we were there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

And how does one go about finding these schools around the nation?

Look up the school in Niche or similar. It will tell you the FARMS rate when available.

What FRL rate makes the whole school eligible for free meals?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine goes to one of CEP schools in APS so they will still get free lunch next year.

What is this? Like all kids at some schools will still get free lunch?

Low income school district where everyone qualifies for FARMS.

So, a certain %age eligible for FRL makes everyone at the school get it for free? Over 40% qualifies as Title I; but are you saying there's another layer on top of that? Is that part of why Arlington is so gung-ho about concentrating poverty?

Anonymous wrote:What did the kids eat at school? Were there vegetables and meat?

When Covid started in early 2020, FCPS offered free lunches at school bus stations. We went to pick up one - There was an apple, great, and a muffin and chocolate milk which were sugar. We never took advantage of the program after that meal.

Those were the packed lunches they were handing out when schools were closed. My kid's school lunches were the same as before: a meat and a vegetarian main option with a fruit and vegetable side.

Anonymous wrote:It makes me sick that families that make under $50K cannot get FARMS meals for their children, but families that make up to $300K are going to be eligible for $10K reduction in their student loans.

The free breakfast lunch program costs about $10-11B to run. The student loan forgiveness is going to cost about $321B.

Talk about terrible priorities. The administration and Congress need to start rethinking their priorities and to figure out what helps those who need the most help. And no, I am not in the affected population. We make enough that we do not need the meal program. But I feel for those families who make between median HHI and the qualification for SNAP or WIC (which is the borderline for FARMS). Those people need the help a lot more than a bunch of rich doctors, lawyers and professionals need help paying for loans that they should have been paying for years.

Couldn't agree more. Elected leaders (even locally) are so out-of-touch with the realities of their constituents and they are seemingly incapable of actually analyzing the complexities of a situation to understand what would actually SOLVE a problem versus bandaid a symptom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

My kids got two servings of vegetables at lunch every day. Where do you live?

There are a lot of processed foods in APS school lunches. Just having a vegetable or two available doesn't make the whole meal healthy and nutritious - or tasty. And not all kids get "the meal" - rather, ala cart options.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I can't speak for the PP you're judging; but that person did say they CAN afford it.
Nevertheless, there is always a cut-off line and therefore always people who just miss the cut-off. You never know what the financial situation is for any family. There may be a lot of additional health expenses for a child with special needs or illnesses; student loans and/or home mortgages to pay; etc.

The point, I believe, is that there are a lot of families considered middle income who are having a more difficult time making ends meet with inflation, yearly rising property taxes, more and more fees for everything - and increased fees, and always having to pay the full fee for everything. A family with an income of $103K/year is expected to pay the same as a family with an income of $203K or $250K+/year. Logically, the $250K family would have significantly more discretionary income to spend on all these things without feeling as much of a pinch.

I saw that the schools ran out of food very quickly today.

Anonymous wrote:

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

And how does one go about finding these schools around the nation?

Check the APS website for starters:

Barcroft, Barrett, Carlin Springs, Dr. Charles R. Drew and Randolph elementary schools are CEP schools and will provide meals at no cost next school year.

Anonymous wrote:If the pandemic taught us anything, it's that the US *can* do many things for those in need... it just chooses NOT to do them.

We CAN feed all the kids that not only go to a particular school but also who live in that area... but we choose not to.

Just like we CAN pay foster parents to house and care for a child who was removed from the birth mother for not being able to provide a suitable house for said child.

The pandemic hit and the telecom companies couldn't rush quickly enough to pass out free hotspots and internet to those in low-income and poor communities who had a lack of resources before. There was nothing preventing them from doing that pre-pandemic except their own greed and the lack of a good PR opportunity.

It's this. Americans LOVE voting against their own interests.