No free lunch next year?

[Anonymous]

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.

No, we shouldn’t. My kids don’t need it. We can afford food. Many can’t. Give them better food than the crap free for all.

This. My 2 cents for MCPS
- Increase the threshold for eligibility for FARMS. Make it multi-tiered based on student preference for payment. Some families don't want to take free food but won't mind a very subsidized payment.
- Improve food quality and make it more healthy
- Allow the community to sponsor meals.

I would gladly donate $$$ for the food program and I do not have students in MCPS anymore.

Mcps has a donation program. Stop with the fake concern.

NP. Is this true? I had never heard of a donation program. Would you mind linking to this?

They started it a few years ago I think... forget when.

https://www.mcpsfoundation.org/pages/ways-to-give/dine206

MCPS has a non-profit and its run through them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is free lunch for income eligible.

The eligibility requirements are shockingly low (or high?) for this area. A family of four has to be below $48,000 annually to qualify. I cannot imagine raising 2 (or 3) children on anywhere close to that amount.

That’s how much is claimed. A lot of these low income people make quite a bit of cash money taking care of adults or babies, housecleaning, and other things which generate thousands of dollars per month.

[Anonymous]

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.

No, we shouldn’t. My kids don’t need it. We can afford food. Many can’t. Give them better food than the crap free for all.

This. My 2 cents for MCPS
- Increase the threshold for eligibility for FARMS. Make it multi-tiered based on student preference for payment. Some families don't want to take free food but won't mind a very subsidized payment.
- Improve food quality and make it more healthy
- Allow the community to sponsor meals.

I would gladly donate $$$ for the food program and I do not have students in MCPS anymore.

Mcps has a donation program. Stop with the fake concern.

NP. Is this true? I had never heard of a donation program. Would you mind linking to this?

We're in Howard County, but we can donate through MySchoolBucks. Pre-pandemic and the free food program, I would usually load the kids' MySchoolBucks account with $100 at a time. At the end of the school year, I would email the program coordinator and tell them to donate the balance of the kids accounts. They take the money and they apply it to accounts that are in arrears and have been for some time. When the school year starts, I put in $100 per child again. I did this for each of the 3 years prior to the pandemic.

[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.

No, we shouldn’t. My kids don’t need it. We can afford food. Many can’t. Give them better food than the crap free for all.

This. My 2 cents for MCPS
- Increase the threshold for eligibility for FARMS. Make it multi-tiered based on student preference for payment. Some families don't want to take free food but won't mind a very subsidized payment.
- Improve food quality and make it more healthy
- Allow the community to sponsor meals.

I would gladly donate $$$ for the food program and I do not have students in MCPS anymore.

Mcps has a donation program. Stop with the fake concern.

NP. Is this true? I had never heard of a donation program. Would you mind linking to this?

We're in Howard County, but we can donate through MySchoolBucks. Pre-pandemic and the free food program, I would usually load the kids' MySchoolBucks account with $100 at a time. At the end of the school year, I would email the program coordinator and tell them to donate the balance of the kids accounts. They take the money and they apply it to accounts that are in arrears and have been for some time. When the school year starts, I put in $100 per child again. I did this for each of the 3 years prior to the pandemic.

I'm the HCPSS PP. I just checked through my email and the person who I worked with was a County school district person. It looks like they were the coordinator of the MySchoolBucks account for HCPSS. They also said that my donation would be donated to accounts in arrears at our school in particular rather than across the school district. So we were helping out families in our school. I see that way back when, I sent my original email asking about donations to our school principal and she forwarded it to the county coordinator who then worked with me to get my donation sorted out. The next two years, I just emailed the same person directly.

[Anonymous]

Really? Six pages and nobody’s quoted TANSTAAFL yet? Compared to the rest of my family, I don’t really qualify as a geek. I can’t believe I’m the only one who made this connection.

Seriously, though, I agree with the sentiment “There’s No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.”. While I absolutely agree we need to help those who need help and that no child in our county should go hungry, everything has an opportunity cost. The more we spend on free lunches, the less we can spend on other worthy causes, at least without increasing debt, which will eventually have its own consequences. I am fully capable of paying my children’s lunches. Sometimes they packed a lunch and other times they purchased the school lunch which, however poor the quality, was not terribly expensive to begin with. Moreover, while our family was comfortable, we’re nowhere near the high income end of Montgomery County, much less DCUM. I’m happy for MCPS to provide free lunches to lower income families and to set a higher qualifying income standard to cover more kids. I find it totally unnecessary, wasteful, and practically obscene to give charity to people who don’t need it when it could be used to help those who do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is free lunch for income eligible.

The eligibility requirements are shockingly low (or high?) for this area. A family of four has to be below $48,000 annually to qualify. I cannot imagine raising 2 (or 3) children on anywhere close to that amount.

There are also plenty of other food programs including WIC, Food Stamps, and free food pick ups. This isn't the only free lunch program. There is a huge difference between need and want.

And then there's "greatly improves quality of life by reducing parental stress and costs next to nothing compared to the benefits."

If buying or packing a lunch is too difficult don’t have kids or have your nanny or delivery service do it. Or, just pay.

You sound like a truly terrible person. School lunch should be offered and available to anyone, period. I’m sorry that you don’t care about other people. Get better.

NP and I care VERY much about other people. To the point that I believe in the long run these programs do more harm than good. I truly believe everyone would be better off if people stopped relying on the government (or anyone for that matter) for such a basic thing like feeding their kids. Except for the truly exceptional case, for which charities and local communities could come together to help a family, the government shouldn't have to provide food, clothing, housing, etc. This is a philosophical opinion that I know is extremely unpopular today, but it is what I believe. There are many many reasons I feel this way and believe it or not, I believe in it for the greater good in the long run.

I don't think it does anyone any favors by creating a mindset of relying on other people or god forbid the government for something as basic as providing food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is free lunch for income eligible.

The eligibility requirements are shockingly low (or high?) for this area. A family of four has to be below $48,000 annually to qualify. I cannot imagine raising 2 (or 3) children on anywhere close to that amount.

That’s how much is claimed. A lot of these low income people make quite a bit of cash money taking care of adults or babies, housecleaning, and other things which generate thousands of dollars per month.

This.

There are plenty of ‘low-income’ families in this area who qualify as low-income for tax purposes, but make a good amount of supplemental income in cash that they never need to report to the IRS.

We live in a lower-income neighborhood in MoCo and have plenty of neighbors who fit this description.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really? Six pages and nobody’s quoted TANSTAAFL yet? Compared to the rest of my family, I don’t really qualify as a geek. I can’t believe I’m the only one who made this connection.

Seriously, though, I agree with the sentiment “There’s No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.”. While I absolutely agree we need to help those who need help and that no child in our county should go hungry, everything has an opportunity cost. The more we spend on free lunches, the less we can spend on other worthy causes, at least without increasing debt, which will eventually have its own consequences. I am fully capable of paying my children’s lunches. Sometimes they packed a lunch and other times they purchased the school lunch which, however poor the quality, was not terribly expensive to begin with. Moreover, while our family was comfortable, we’re nowhere near the high income end of Montgomery County, much less DCUM. I’m happy for MCPS to provide free lunches to lower income families and to set a higher qualifying income standard to cover more kids. I find it totally unnecessary, wasteful, and practically obscene to give charity to people who don’t need it when it could be used to help those who do.

+1 million

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is free lunch for income eligible.

The eligibility requirements are shockingly low (or high?) for this area. A family of four has to be below $48,000 annually to qualify. I cannot imagine raising 2 (or 3) children on anywhere close to that amount.

That’s how much is claimed. A lot of these low income people make quite a bit of cash money taking care of adults or babies, housecleaning, and other things which generate thousands of dollars per month.

Welfare queens, too, I'm sure!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These kind of programs significantly contributed to the inflation that we are facing now.

Ha ha, LOL. Worldwide inflation caused by MCPS lunches. LOL.

Actually, the PP is correct. Ha ha, LOL.

Educate yourself on how inflation works and the causes of inflation.

You’re a fool and have no concept of macro economics

How many people really wanted to buy those shitty school lunches!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is free lunch for income eligible.

The eligibility requirements are shockingly low (or high?) for this area. A family of four has to be below $48,000 annually to qualify. I cannot imagine raising 2 (or 3) children on anywhere close to that amount.

There are also plenty of other food programs including WIC, Food Stamps, and free food pick ups. This isn't the only free lunch program. There is a huge difference between need and want.

And then there's "greatly improves quality of life by reducing parental stress and costs next to nothing compared to the benefits."

If buying or packing a lunch is too difficult don’t have kids or have your nanny or delivery service do it. Or, just pay.

You sound like a truly terrible person. School lunch should be offered and available to anyone, period. I’m sorry that you don’t care about other people. Get better.

NP and I care VERY much about other people. To the point that I believe in the long run these programs do more harm than good. I truly believe everyone would be better off if people stopped relying on the government (or anyone for that matter) for such a basic thing like feeding their kids. Except for the truly exceptional case, for which charities and local communities could come together to help a family, the government shouldn't have to provide food, clothing, housing, etc. This is a philosophical opinion that I know is extremely unpopular today, but it is what I believe. There are many many reasons I feel this way and believe it or not, I believe in it for the greater good in the long run.

I don't think it does anyone any favors by creating a mindset of relying on other people or god forbid the government for something as basic as providing food.

Agreed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do lunch duty in an elementary school and the amount of food that I saw go to waste this year was absolutely appalling! At least 50% of most kid's lunches ended up in the trash, and for many that number was more like 80%. My school has a FARMS rate of about 30%, but many more kids would order the (free) school lunch. As a taxpayer, I don't feel like my money should be used to provide a free lunch to kids whose families are able to afford trips to Europe! I understand that it's easier for parents to not have to pack a lunch, but free lunches should be for the kids who really need it due to economic reasons.

These programs benefits only a few and vast majority of money is wasted. Look at who is contracted to supply, package and serve food.. you will know more.

Yep. Follow the money. Lots of people making good money in these programs. Taxpayer money going straight into their pockets, while the food goes straight in the trash.

But in MoCo, if you question these types of initiatives, you’re labeled as a ‘child-hater’ or something to that effect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These kind of programs significantly contributed to the inflation that we are facing now.

Ha ha, LOL. Worldwide inflation caused by MCPS lunches. LOL.

Actually, the PP is correct. Ha ha, LOL.

Educate yourself on how inflation works and the causes of inflation.

You’re a fool and have no concept of macro economics

humm.. this shows your ignorance. these kind of programs along with stimmy checks by liberal governments is the cause of inflation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These kind of programs significantly contributed to the inflation that we are facing now.

Ha ha, LOL. Worldwide inflation caused by MCPS lunches. LOL.

Actually, the PP is correct. Ha ha, LOL.

Educate yourself on how inflation works and the causes of inflation.

You’re a fool and have no concept of macro economics

humm.. this shows your ignorance. these kind of programs along with stimmy checks by liberal governments is the cause of inflation

unnecessary demand for food is created and the food bought with tax payer money was wasted throwing that food in trash as someone said earlier. This jacked up the price for everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These kind of programs significantly contributed to the inflation that we are facing now.

Ha ha, LOL. Worldwide inflation caused by MCPS lunches. LOL.

Actually, the PP is correct. Ha ha, LOL.

Educate yourself on how inflation works and the causes of inflation.

You’re a fool and have no concept of macro economics

humm.. this shows your ignorance. these kind of programs along with stimmy checks by liberal governments is the cause of inflation

unnecessary demand for food is created and the food bought with tax payer money was wasted throwing that food in trash as someone said earlier. This jacked up the price for everything.

Exactly. And I’ll argue that it’s just an ‘artificial’ demand for food. Since the kids aren’t even eating it. It’s an incredibly wasteful program that leads to unintended consequences (inflation being one of them).