Free school lunches

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

2 schools here qualify for 100% free lunches. Its a fed deal that kicks in if 40% of kids qualify.  In one school for special/alternative ed 151 out of 187 were already getting it.
Learn something new everyday

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[roo_ster]

TANSTAFL

For the love of Pete, why can not these poor/pseudo-poor/crazy-check people do what we do and brown bag lunch for the kids?  Why should tax payers pay for high-$$$ obama-chow when a brown bag lunch of sandwich, fruit, and drink is so cheap?

Hell, I have gotten to where I charge my kids if they forget the lunch I made for them.  The school won't let them go hungry as they ought to, so I get charged when the kiddos forget to grab it from the fridge or table.  First week of charging them, the practice of "forgetting" their lunch when the school was serving something tasty stopped, butt cold.  "See, you had saved up enough money for the doll/video game you wanted, but now you are $4 short.  Too bad you forgot your lunch..."

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

I am surprised you are not jailed for child abuse

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[brimic]

TANSTAFL

For the love of Pete, why can not these poor/pseudo-poor/crazy-check people do what we do and brown bag lunch for the kids?  Why should tax payers pay for high-$$$ obama-chow when a brown bag lunch of sandwich, fruit, and drink is so cheap?

Hell, I have gotten to where I charge my kids if they forget the lunch I made for them.  The school won't let them go hungry as they ought to, so I get charged when the kiddos forget to grab it from the fridge or table.  First week of charging them, the practice of "forgetting" their lunch when the school was serving something tasty stopped, butt cold.  "See, you had saved up enough money for the doll/video game you wanted, but now you are $4 short.  Too bad you forgot your lunch..."

My kids get PB&J, an apple, a yogurt, and some carrots- every day. It takes 5 minutes of my time and about $2. Of course I don't live in a 'food desert' and I'm able to get up 5 minutes* earlier to make the lunches than my counterpart in the ghetto, because I don't have a busy day of smoking crack ahead of me.  
I won't even let my kids eat hot lunch- its high fat, high-sodium garbage that rotates between corn dogs, pizza, and tacos.

*edit: its actually about 2.5 minutes- the 11 year old has been adequately trained to make his own lunch for a few years now. He can also do other basic culinary functions like open a can a soup and nuke it for 2 minutes, or take some brocolli or mixed vegetables out of the freezer and heat up. Definately counts as child abuse to some.

[Kingcreek]

It is a multi level problem. So simple in some ways but so very hard to fix.
Generational poverty and entitlement with an almost total absence of parenting and life skills.
Its not the little kids fault that momma doesn't get out of bed before noon and would not go to the trouble of preparing any food, let alone healthy food. Many of the children in this demographic don't get a meal between Friday and the return to school on Monday, even though the baby momma gets abundant assistance in the form of food stamps etc. I really don't want to stereotype but as someone who used to be involved in a high poverty school district, I have more insight and first hand experience than I want with this reality.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

It is a multi level problem. So simple in some ways but so very hard to fix.
Generational poverty and entitlement with an almost total absence of parenting and life skills.
Its not the little kids fault that momma doesn't get out of bed before noon and would not go to the trouble of preparing any food, let alone healthy food. Many of the children in this demographic don't get a meal between Friday and the return to school on Monday, even though the baby momma gets abundant assistance in the form of food stamps etc. I really don't want to stereotype but as someone who used to be involved in a high poverty school district, I have more insight and first hand experience than I want with this reality.

you hit the real dilemma there   its not the kids fault     but its hard to deal with supporting moms bad habits.   those kids not eating? as you observed its not a lack of resources its a misapplication of them.  i know kids that miss meals but mom and pop always have smokes, and usually beer etc   and don't see anything wrong with that

[MillCreek]

It is a multi level problem. So simple in some ways but so very hard to fix.
Generational poverty and entitlement with an almost total absence of parenting and life skills.
Its not the little kids fault that momma doesn't get out of bed before noon and would not go to the trouble of preparing any food, let alone healthy food. Many of the children in this demographic don't get a meal between Friday and the return to school on Monday, even though the baby momma gets abundant assistance in the form of food stamps etc. I really don't want to stereotype but as someone who used to be involved in a high poverty school district, I have more insight and first hand experience than I want with this reality.

My wife the teacher, who transferred last year to a lower socioeconomic level school, approves of this post.

[MillCreek]

you hit the real dilemma there   its not the kids fault     but its hard to deal with supporting moms bad habits.   those kids not eating? as you observed its not a lack of resources its a misapplication of them.  i know kids that miss meals but mom and pop always have smokes, and usually beer etc   and don't see anything wrong with that

My wife agrees with this, too.

[KD5NRH]

For the love of Pete, why can not these poor/pseudo-poor/crazy-check people do what we do and brown bag lunch for the kids?

Because then there's the risk of running afoul of Her Majesty's food police.  Sure, now they just take candy (or turkey sandwiches) from babies, but what government agency hasn't expanded to heavily armed predawn raids once folks got used to them?

[roo_ster]

To put it bluntly:
That is their problem, not ours.  We can not make them care for their children to the standard we consider acceptable without taking them away and raising them in orphanages.  There is no "early intervention" early enough (outside of sterilization) that will help.

We need to stop subsidizing the r-strategist(1) cultures in this country.  We can no longer afford it.  And our resources are better spent on just about anything, to include buying M1A2 tanks and Tesla electric cars and then dumping them into the sea.  Or slathering the cash in 172 proof rum and setting the lot on fire.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory#r-selection

[brimic]

To put it bluntly:
That is their problem, not ours.  We can not make them care for their children to the standard we consider acceptable without taking them away and raising them in orphanages.  There is no "early intervention" early enough (outside of sterilization) that will help.

We need to stop subsidizing the r-strategist(1) cultures in this country.  We can no longer afford it.  And our resources are better spent on just about anything, to include buying M1A2 tanks and Tesla electric cars and then dumping them into the sea.  Or slathering the cash in 172 proof rum and setting the lot on fire.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory#r-selection

I approve of this message!

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Its not a 'poverty thing' its a 'cultural thing.' There is no reason to subsidize subcultures that continue to undermine the greater culture.
 
I grew up in poverty, yet there was never a shortage of food- without .gov assistance.

[French G.]

I grew up in a very poor place. If you got reduced price lunches you carefully hid this fact from your friends for fear of ridicule. A favorite insult was an implication that your mother received gov't cheese; irregardless of her wear of combat boots.

I don't see my kid many school mornings but she begs me to pack her lunch whenever I do have her.

[zxcvbob]

This was a big Thing here a month ago in the paper and all the local news channels; someone got on their high horse about kids who forget their lunch or whose lunch accounts go negative: the lunch ladies gave them a cold sandwich -- peanut butter or cheese.  This was deemed to be cruel; I think they used the word "bullying" a couple of times.

It sounds more like a kindness to me.

[Pb]

Some people do not care if their children eat or not.   

[brimic]

Some people do not care if their children eat or not.   

Its easy for them to have that attitude when others will feed them for them.

[Kingcreek]

Actually it's probably more accurate to say they don't worry about feeding their children because they know someone else will or the children will figure out how to get something to eat. These kids know the PIN for momma's food assistance debit card before they know how to spell their own name. They aren't as much hungry as they are raising themselves.
Not to be too quick to defend the baby momma's of the world, but most truly care for their children. They are just raising them the only way they know- usually the way they were raised.
For anybody interested, Ruby Payne PhD published some good material on understanding generational poverty. Not necessarily fixing it, but better understanding it.

[Kingcreek]

double..

[Jocassee]

I had a conversation about this with my GF, who is currently teaching in a Title 1 school.

Some of you may know that they also provide weekend meals for these kids. If they don't the kids go hungry. Said children are euphemistically referred to as "Backpack Kids" because they carry extra large backpacks. GF said that the day before spring break they are loaded up more than usual.

Can't say it better than this

Generational poverty and entitlement with an almost total absence of parenting and life skills.

Along with the person who said

misapplication of resources

[brimic]

These kids know the PIN for momma's food assistance debit card before they know how to spell their own name. They aren't as much hungry as they are raising themselves.

Idea- teach basic life skills in schools where such culture is rampant. Instead of teaching 'Jane has two mommies' or 'Joe has two daddies and a goat' or other useless dreck, start teaching something useful, starting at basic hygeine and working up to nutritian and cooking ones own meals. Take the EBT cards away from mommy and give them to the kids (at say around 8 years old)- should change a lot of dynamics of things.

[SADShooter]

Idea- teach basic life skills in schools where such culture is rampant. Instead of teaching 'Jane has two mommies' or 'Joe has two daddies and a goat' or other useless dreck, start teaching something useful, starting at basic hygeine and working up to nutritian and cooking ones own meals. Take the EBT cards away from mommy and give them to the kids (at say around 8 years old)- should change a lot of dynamics of things.

If the goal of the system were inculcating self-sufficiency or independent thinking, that would make sense...

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Idea- teach basic life skills in schools where such culture is rampant. Instead of teaching 'Jane has two mommies' or 'Joe has two daddies and a goat' or other useless dreck, start teaching something useful, starting at basic hygeine and working up to nutritian and cooking ones own meals. Take the EBT cards away from mommy and give them to the kids (at say around 8 years old)- should change a lot of dynamics of things.

They are ahead of you. They do teach that stuff and sadly its the first time many ever get exposed to the idea of getting their act together

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[zahc]

Just another problem that wouldn't exist without government schools.

[KD5NRH]

Idea- teach basic life skills in schools where such culture is rampant.

We can't even get "how to act like a grownup" and "how to dress like a grownup" added to core curriculum at a college level.  How do you think you're going to get people to learn to grow up even sooner?

[Jamisjockey]

If the goal of the system were inculcating self-sufficiency or independent thinking, that would make sense...

QFT.....QFMFT