Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in VA but Baltimore City schools decided to do this for all schools a few years ago. All students in all school receive free breakfast and lunch. It makes the breakfast and lunch lines move a lot faster since students no longer have to enter their PIN number at the end of the line.

Wrong--kids still enter a pin, (1) because USDA wants to track the use; and (2) because add-ons are not free (popcorn, pretzels, cookies, etc.)

I know this isn't true for the free breakfast. They just bring a cart of food to the classroom. No one enters a pin.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s the farms cutoff for this?

There isn’t one.
All kids eat free.

That is great.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in VA but Baltimore City schools decided to do this for all schools a few years ago. All students in all school receive free breakfast and lunch. It makes the breakfast and lunch lines move a lot faster since students no longer have to enter their PIN number at the end of the line.

Wrong--kids still enter a pin, (1) because USDA wants to track the use; and (2) because add-ons are not free (popcorn, pretzels, cookies, etc.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in VA but Baltimore City schools decided to do this for all schools a few years ago. All students in all school receive free breakfast and lunch. It makes the breakfast and lunch lines move a lot faster since students no longer have to enter their PIN number at the end of the line.

Yeah, and it’s really improved the schools in Baltimore, hasn’t it? Bet it will only accelerate the flight of non-FARMS families from those schools.

Wow, you are pretty heartless. So we should only feed kids on the taxpayer's dime IF it increases test scores?

Giving even more free stuff to families in those areas and having the schools show up as 100% FARMS on state reports certainly won’t improve those neighborhoods. Teaching personal responsibility might.

What personal responsibility? Two people working full time jobs together make less than $30K a year. It's ridiculous to say that two people who work full time jobs a)are being irresponsible if they have a kid or b) shoudn't be allowed to live in metro areas if it means they require taxpayer support. We don't want to live in a third world country, which is what we're going to be if we have the 1% and everyone else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in VA but Baltimore City schools decided to do this for all schools a few years ago. All students in all school receive free breakfast and lunch. It makes the breakfast and lunch lines move a lot faster since students no longer have to enter their PIN number at the end of the line.

Yeah, and it’s really improved the schools in Baltimore, hasn’t it? Bet it will only accelerate the flight of non-FARMS families from those schools.

Wow, you are pretty heartless. So we should only feed kids on the taxpayer's dime IF it increases test scores?

Giving even more free stuff to families in those areas and having the schools show up as 100% FARMS on state reports certainly won’t improve those neighborhoods. Teaching personal responsibility might.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually think Woodburn is a typo and it should be Woodlawn in Alexandria.

Pretty sure it is actually Woodburn. We got a notice home about it. I, too, was surprised. This is our first year here though, so I don’t know all the areas zoned for the school. Thus far we love our neighborhood AND the school. We don’t need the free meals, but I am glad the kids that do are getting them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in VA but Baltimore City schools decided to do this for all schools a few years ago. All students in all school receive free breakfast and lunch. It makes the breakfast and lunch lines move a lot faster since students no longer have to enter their PIN number at the end of the line.

Yeah, and it’s really improved the schools in Baltimore, hasn’t it? Bet it will only accelerate the flight of non-FARMS families from those schools.

Wow, you are pretty heartless. So we should only feed kids on the taxpayer's dime IF it increases test scores?

Giving even more free stuff to families in those areas and having the schools show up as 100% FARMS on state reports certainly won’t improve those neighborhoods. Teaching personal responsibility might.

NP. Free stuff? This is food for kids who might be hungry. SMH at people who want to punish children no matter what.

Those kids were already getting FARMS and many other subsidies. This means that all the kids at those schools will get free meals with no income verification at all.

You're delusional if you don't think it's not going to further stigmatize those communities when the school show up as 100% FARMS on state reports in the future.

As was explained upthread, that was an administrative decision the school made and the schools qualify, so they did it. You can take it up with administrators if you dislike this decision and think your children are going to be stimatized because a school is rated this way. Facts are facts and that is the wealth of the community. You could move. I take issue more with you throwing around "free stuff", like we would rather these children go hungry.

Tell you what. Why don't you write some extra big checks when you pay your taxes next year, and that way those of us who are trying to save for retirement and take care of our own kids won't have to work until we're 75.

As pointed out up thread, the feds made this change because it actually cheaper to provide meals to all kids in majority low income communities than to pay someone to do all the paperwork associated with establishing an individual benefit. So if you prefer that money go to pay an administrative salary vs give a middle class kid a meal, that's fine, but be honest that this isn't about free meals vs saving tax dollars.

Anonymous wrote:I’m a male ES teacher and could easily find 12 moms who are calendar worthy. It should be just as easy to pick out the dads.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in VA but Baltimore City schools decided to do this for all schools a few years ago. All students in all school receive free breakfast and lunch. It makes the breakfast and lunch lines move a lot faster since students no longer have to enter their PIN number at the end of the line.

Yeah, and it’s really improved the schools in Baltimore, hasn’t it? Bet it will only accelerate the flight of non-FARMS families from those schools.

Why in the world would free lunch be the thing that pushes a family to leave? This makes no sense.

Anonymous wrote:I wish they'd stop calling it free. It's not free. It's taxpayer funded.

It's a good part of the social safety net in many cases, but they should be honest with their words.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in VA but Baltimore City schools decided to do this for all schools a few years ago. All students in all school receive free breakfast and lunch. It makes the breakfast and lunch lines move a lot faster since students no longer have to enter their PIN number at the end of the line.

Yeah, and it’s really improved the schools in Baltimore, hasn’t it? Bet it will only accelerate the flight of non-FARMS families from those schools.

Wow, you are pretty heartless. So we should only feed kids on the taxpayer's dime IF it increases test scores?

Giving even more free stuff to families in those areas and having the schools show up as 100% FARMS on state reports certainly won’t improve those neighborhoods. Teaching personal responsibility might.

NP. Free stuff? This is food for kids who might be hungry. SMH at people who want to punish children no matter what.

Those kids were already getting FARMS and many other subsidies. This means that all the kids at those schools will get free meals with no income verification at all.

You're delusional if you don't think it's not going to further stigmatize those communities when the school show up as 100% FARMS on state reports in the future.

As was explained upthread, that was an administrative decision the school made and the schools qualify, so they did it. You can take it up with administrators if you dislike this decision and think your children are going to be stimatized because a school is rated this way. Facts are facts and that is the wealth of the community. You could move. I take issue more with you throwing around "free stuff", like we would rather these children go hungry.

Tell you what. Why don't you write some extra big checks when you pay your taxes next year, and that way those of us who are trying to save for retirement and take care of our own kids won't have to work until we're 75.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in VA but Baltimore City schools decided to do this for all schools a few years ago. All students in all school receive free breakfast and lunch. It makes the breakfast and lunch lines move a lot faster since students no longer have to enter their PIN number at the end of the line.

Yeah, and it’s really improved the schools in Baltimore, hasn’t it? Bet it will only accelerate the flight of non-FARMS families from those schools.

Wow, you are pretty heartless. So we should only feed kids on the taxpayer's dime IF it increases test scores?

Giving even more free stuff to families in those areas and having the schools show up as 100% FARMS on state reports certainly won’t improve those neighborhoods. Teaching personal responsibility might.

NP. Free stuff? This is food for kids who might be hungry. SMH at people who want to punish children no matter what.

Those kids were already getting FARMS and many other subsidies. This means that all the kids at those schools will get free meals with no income verification at all.

You're delusional if you don't think it's not going to further stigmatize those communities when the school show up as 100% FARMS on state reports in the future.

As was explained upthread, that was an administrative decision the school made and the schools qualify, so they did it. You can take it up with administrators if you dislike this decision and think your children are going to be stimatized because a school is rated this way. Facts are facts and that is the wealth of the community. You could move. I take issue more with you throwing around "free stuff", like we would rather these children go hungry.

Tell you what. Why don't you write some extra big checks when you pay your taxes next year, and that way those of us who are trying to save for retirement and take care of our own kids won't have to work until we're 75.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in VA but Baltimore City schools decided to do this for all schools a few years ago. All students in all school receive free breakfast and lunch. It makes the breakfast and lunch lines move a lot faster since students no longer have to enter their PIN number at the end of the line.

Yeah, and it’s really improved the schools in Baltimore, hasn’t it? Bet it will only accelerate the flight of non-FARMS families from those schools.

Wow, you are pretty heartless. So we should only feed kids on the taxpayer's dime IF it increases test scores?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not in VA but Baltimore City schools decided to do this for all schools a few years ago. All students in all school receive free breakfast and lunch. It makes the breakfast and lunch lines move a lot faster since students no longer have to enter their PIN number at the end of the line.

Yeah, and it’s really improved the schools in Baltimore, hasn’t it? Bet it will only accelerate the flight of non-FARMS families from those schools.