View Full Version : Free School Lunch
Someone should have taught this mother "never look a gift horse in the mouth" Unbelievable.
No free lunch: Schools get tough on deadbeats
Some start 'cheese sandwich policy' for kids whose parents don't pay
The Associated Press
updated 10:33 a.m. CT, Wed., Feb. 25, 2009
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A cold cheese sandwich, fruit and a milk carton might not seem like much of a meal — but that's what's on the menu for students in New Mexico's largest school district without their lunch money.
Faced with mounting unpaid lunch charges in the economic downturn, Albuquerque Public Schools last month instituted a "cheese sandwich policy," serving the alternative meals to children whose parents fail to pick up their lunch tab.
Such policies have become a necessity for schools seeking to keep budgets in the black while ensuring children don't go hungry. School districts including those in Chula Vista, Calif., Hillsborough County, Fla., and Lynnwood, Wash., have also taken to serving cheese sandwiches to lunch debtors.
Critics argue the cold meals are a form of punishment for children whose parents can't afford to pay.
"We've heard stories from moms coming in saying their child was pulled out of the lunch line and given a cheese sandwich," said Nancy Pope, director of the New Mexico Collaborative to End Hunger. "One woman said her daughter never wants to go back to school."
Mixed reviews
Some Albuquerque parents have tearfully pleaded with school board members to stop singling out their children because they're poor, while others have flooded talk radio shows thanking the district for imposing a policy that commands parental responsibility.
Second-grader Danessa Vigil said she will never eat sliced cheese again. She had to eat cheese sandwiches because her mother couldn't afford to give her lunch money while her application for free lunch was being processed.
"Every time I eat it, it makes me feel like I want to throw up," the 7-year-old said.
Her mother, Darlene Vigil, said there are days she can't spare lunch money for her two daughters.
"Some parents don't have even $1 sometimes," the 27-year-old single mother said. "If they do, it's for something else, like milk at home. There are some families that just don't have it and that's the reason they're not paying."
The School Nutrition Association recently surveyed nutrition directors from 38 states and found more than half of school districts have seen an increase in the number of students charging meals, while 79 percent saw an increase in the number of free lunches served over the last year.
'Families struggling'
In New Mexico, nearly 204,000 low-income students — about three-fifths of public school students — received free or reduced-price lunches at the beginning of the school year, according to the state Public Education Department.
"What you are seeing is families struggling and having a really hard time, and school districts are struggling as well," said Crystal FitzSimons of the national Food Research and Action Center.
In Albuquerque, unpaid lunch charges hovered around $55,000 in 2006. That jumped to $130,000 at the end of the 2007-08 school year. It was $140,000 through the first five months of this school year.
Charges were on pace to reach $300,000 by the end of the year. Mary Swift, director of Albuquerque's food and nutrition services, said her department had no way to absorb that debt as it had in the past.
"We can't use any federal lunch program money to pay what they call bad debt. It has to come out of the general budget and of course that takes it from some other department," Swift said.
'Dignity and respect'
With the new policy, the school district has collected just over $50,000 from parents since the beginning of the year. It also identified 2,000 students eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunches, and more children in the lunch program means more federal dollars for the district.
School officials said the policy was under consideration for some time and parents were notified last fall. Families with unpaid charges are reminded with an automated phone call each night and notes are sent home with children once a week.
Swift added that the cheese sandwiches — about 80 of the 46,000 meals the district serves daily — can be considered a "courtesy meal," rather than an alternate meal.
Some districts, she noted, don't allow children without money to eat anything.
Albuquerque Public Schools "has historically gone above and beyond as far as treating children with dignity and respect and trying to do what's best with for the child and I think this is just another example," Swift said.
.....'Families struggling'
In New Mexico, nearly 204,000 low-income students — about three-fifths of public school students — received free or reduced-price lunches at the beginning of the school year, according to the state Public Education Department.......
And that whole Free or Reduced Lunch program is a big crock of warm, brown smelly stuff.
The schools push the Lunch paperwork on one and all here in Cumberland County. One year the local paper even ran a series on the scam.
They have to check something like 1.5 - 3% of the applications and the paper found that something like 40% of the applications lied about their income. As the school handed the parent the rejection they also handed them a new application - since they had checked the required numbers and would not check the new one for that year.
To the school system its all about the money.
And the kids without cash money for that days lunch? Always the same ones.
Hey Momma! Don't want your kid to go hungry? Pack them a brown bag lunch.
Oh, that takes time and planning.
And that whole Free or Reduced Lunch program is a big crock of warm, brown smelly stuff.
The schools push the Lunch paperwork on one and all here in Cumberland County. One year the local paper even ran a series on the scam.
They have to check something like 1.5 - 3% of the applications and the paper found that something like 40% of the applications lied about their income. As the school handed the parent the rejection they also handed them a new application - since they had checked the required numbers and would not check the new one for that year.
To the school system its all about the money.
And the kids without cash money for that days lunch? Always the same ones.
Hey Momma! Don't want your kid to go hungry? Pack them a brown bag lunch.
Oh, that takes time and planning.
And if you can't afford to pack them said lunch, have the courtesy to say thank you to those providing the free lunch to your child, instead of complaining about what is being served.
Hey Momma! Don't want your kid to go hungry? Pack them a brown bag lunch.
Oh, that takes time and planning.
Seriously.
Growing up we had bag lunches but as a treat were allowed one hot lunch per week. I survived with no ill effects. I think. :D
Peregrino
02-25-2009, 19:12
I remember brown bagging a cold cheese sandwich or peanut butter and jelly and an apple. Occasionally there was a nickle for a carton of milk, otherwise it was drinking out of the water fountain. Free lunch programs were unheard of. Despite my fears at the time, my self-esteem survived. Personally, I think a fair number of the parents in question need a swift kick.
Growing up we had bag lunches but as a treat were allowed one hot lunch per week.
I preferred peanut butter and honey or peanut butter and apple butter sandwiches to the food in our cafeteria. I suffer a PTSD episode every time I see one of those cafeteria scenes on The Simpsons. :rolleyes:
Richard's $.02 :munchin
People who are genuinely poor and sufficiently hungry will not reject a free cheese sandwich. And the "humiliation" that such a circumstance imposes oftentimes creates motivation in a child to grow up and take advantage of the work and education opportunities available to succeed so they do not become poor and hungry again. On the other hand, shielding them creates a mentality that free food appears by magic.
longrange1947
02-25-2009, 20:29
Hmmmmmmmm, Cheese sandwiches were the normal lunch for most of my grammar school years (not very keen on American Cheese anymore though). :D
That, or as mentioned above, PB&J. Never felt humiliated and always happy to have food of some type.
AngelsSix
02-25-2009, 20:33
I never ate cafeteria food, my mother always took the time to make our lunches for us. Of course we traded with our friends all over the cafeteria, even if my folks could afford it, I would just as soon have eaten my parents chow. Peanut butter and banana sammies were the bomb!
I suffer a PTSD episode every time I see one of those cafeteria scenes on The Simpsons. :rolleyes:
Richard's $.02 :munchin
:D
I preferred (and still love) PB&J's or our lunchmeat sammiches...except for pizza day on Fridays. They made a half decent pizza at my high school. IIRC it cost us .60 for the meal, 1 slice of pizza and a pop...or soda as some like to call it.
The other days? You couldn't pay me to eat the swill they served.
I had a bologna sandwich, and milk in the thermos, every day in my Lone Ranger lunch box until Junior High. I can't look at lunch boxes on eBay without recalling the smell! :eek: The only change was potato chips or Fritos.
Pat
frostfire
02-25-2009, 22:06
Never felt humiliated and always happy to have food of some type.
People who are genuinely poor and sufficiently hungry will not reject a free cheese sandwich.
Quoted for truth. Reminds me of a pack of scouts who refused the cold luncheon. Fine, suit yourself. After a few more miles of hiking, the luncheon were gone like hot cakes. Food is fuel.
The lunch fee at the school here is $1.60 and $2 for staff. Yes, this is not Golden Corral, but dare I say as I've experienced extended period of hunger, the menu is yummy all the way and I'm grateful even for cold pizza or omelet
For those mothers' claiming of not having even $1, I would ask for any spending/budget on cigarettes, liquor, drugs, make-up, "comfort item/food" and so on. Oh, you'd starve your children to afford those? :rolleyes: There are truly needy people out there, then there are those who truly need a swift heiny kick
We used to refer to the 3 food groups--hot food, cold food, and free food. And the best food group? Free food, of course! Turning down free food of any sort = somebody who is not hungry.
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Puertoland
02-26-2009, 00:43
Just start bagging your kids lunch, I wouldn't want my kid eating cheese sandwhiches all the time, and I sure as hell wouldn't want them eating the gruel at school.
Was talking with my M-I-L. She grew up real poor in rural MS. Kid during the 40's.
She hardly ever got store/white bread. Was raised on biscuits that momma made in the morning. Lunch was 2 country ham biscuits.
She was amazed that the city kids would trade a white bread sandwich for one of those "darned 'ol biscuits".
My school lunch was either a PB&J or Bologna sandwich- hot lunch was a treat.
Being hungry builds character...:lifter
"I'll work until I DIE! Before I'll ever eat another beet, lima beans, bologna and that block cheese.":D
Stay safe.
Didn't like the school lunches as a kid.
Nothing tasted right.
Mom was instilled with the depression area philosophies of food preparation.
I had left overs from the night before in tupperware.
Tupperwared slop, piece of fruit, and water.
Every once and a while I would get money for milk or juice.
Usually saved it and bought a GI Joe at the end of the week. :D
Not poor, simply thrifty.
Dont think I ate "store bought" bread till I joined the Army. And we too exchanged sandwiches and fruits with each other. Desert was not in the picture. It was reserved for Sunday meals at home.
These parents who think it's terrible that their children are singled out as being poor or distressed, are the same parents who have no problem driving up to stand in line at the food banks in their two year old or newer vehicle. Or, to stand in line at the supermarket, and pay for their buggy full of "Junk Food" with their "Welfare Credit Card".
In this area there are many that are truely poor. Its a funny thing though, a lot of them have too much pride to LET their children be embarrassed by not having their lunch money, they do what they have to do for the welfare of their kids.
Thats the way it USED to be.
TrapLine
02-26-2009, 08:57
Not poor, simply thrifty.
Too bad this concept has went the way of the two dollar bill. Growing up in an iron mining town, layoffs and hard times were a way of life. I ate more ground bologna and pickle sandwiches than I could count. I loved them...because I was hungry.
.. I ate more ground bologna and pickle sandwiches than I could count. I loved them...because I was hungry.
I thought I was just about the only one that ate ground bologna. Must be a northern mid-west thing - Upper. We'd run bologna and pickles through a hand grinder, drain off the pickle juice and then mix in some Mayo.
I thought the mix tasted better on crackers but bread "carried" it better.
At the start of every school year, while getting school supplies, getting a new lunch box was at the top of the list. One of those nice metal ones with the thermos inside. My favorite one that I had was the "Emergency" one. I wish I still had that one. I looked to see if any are still available, and the cheapest one I found is for around $150.00 right now....and it has some dents and dings in it.
Used to bring lunch to school ALL the time. I love Bologna and cheese samiches, Hell I had one LAST night after I got home from work. I was too tired to make anything, so I just made me a good ol' fashioned Bologna and Cheese Samich. :D
TrapLine
02-26-2009, 10:01
I thought I was just about the only one that ate ground bologna. Must be a northern mid-west thing - Upper. We'd run bologna and pickles through a hand grinder, drain off the pickle juice and then mix in some Mayo.
I thought the mix tasted better on crackers but bread "carried" it better.
That brings back memories. I remember always liking the sandwiches at grandma's more because she was more liber...generous with the mayo. She would grind that stuff up on the weekends singing Slovenian polka music.
I think I am the only person in my office building that brown bags it daily. I get some weird looks, but for some reason the lunch bucket mentality won't go away. Maybe this weekend I will pull out the old grinder and whip up a batch for old time sake.
greenberetTFS
02-26-2009, 14:14
My dad was in the service,my mom was working her day job and grandma was baby sitting me until I went to school in the early 40's. It was tough times and they had no school lunch programs at those times during the war. There were times when my lunch was pretty small consisting of a sandwich made of one slice of meat,mostly nothing else except the two slices of bread. No mayo because it was to expensive. Sometimes an apple or orange for desert. I was given 2 cents for milk and that was it all through the war years. Same lunch day after day for many years. I survived of course and I honestly believe I'm a better man for it. These programs that some families believe they are entitled too just make me mad. :mad: They get food stamps,medicaid,etc and they still complain...............:rolleyes:
GB TFS :munchin
Dozer523
02-26-2009, 14:41
I thought I was just about the only one that ate ground bologna. Must be a northern mid-west thing - Upper. We'd run bologna and pickles through a hand grinder, drain off the pickle juice and then mix in some Mayo.
I thought the mix tasted better on crackers but bread "carried" it better. Can't be far enough North and mid-west for me. That sounds disgusting.:)
Back at Immaculate Conception under the watchful eye of Sister Mary C. . . I never missed a Thursday to buy lunch (until "the day the bad thing happened") even if I had to use my weekly allowance. Thursday was chocklet cake day. It was also cubed beet day. Little cubes of dark purple beets that stuck, just barely, on the tines of a fork; that if placed on the edge of the table, became a supurb catapult. The moisture in the cubed beet gave it superior sticking power and the ceiling of the luchroom was pretty high. Those juicy little purple cubes would stick for a long time ... usually, they stuck until they dried out.
But, "the day the bad thing happened" went like this: Look, Load. . . Distract, launch. . . splat. Then it didn't acheive the usual adhesion. Slowly it peeled off the ceiling. Sister Mary C entered the room and stood right under it. She seemed to stand there forever. Plop! Directly on the pure white, leading-edge of her headgear (she was one of those "Covered Wagon Penguins) then it fell on to the pure white "chest protector" and slid all the way down. To look at her gave new meaning to the Order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She didn't even have to ask. Every fourth grade index finger was pointed at me. But, it didn't matter, because I was already crying.
And I never bought lunch again.
ZonieDiver
02-26-2009, 14:58
Can't be far enough North and mid-west for me. That sounds disgusting.:)
Back at Immaculate Conception under the watchful eye of Sister Mary C. . . I never missed a Thursday to buy lunch (until "the day the bad thing happened") even if I had to use my weekly allowance. Thursday was chocklet cake day. It was also cubed beet day. Little cubes of dark purple beets that stuck, just barely, on the tines of a fork; that if placed on the edge of the table, became a supurb catapult. The moisture in the cubed beet gave it superior sticking power and the ceiling of the luchroom was pretty high. Those juicy little purple cubes would stick for a long time ... usually, they stuck until they dried out.
But, "the day the bad thing happened" went like this: Look, Load. . . Distract, launch. . . splat. Then it didn't acheive the usual adhesion. Slowly it peeled off the ceiling. Sister Mary C entered the room and stood right under it. She seemed to stand there forever. Plop! Directly on the pure white, leading-edge of her headgear (she was one of those "Covered Wagon Penguins) then it fell on to the pure white "chest protector" and slid all the way down. To look at her gave new meaning to the Order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She didn't even have to ask. Every fourth grade index finger was pointed at me. But, it didn't matter, because I was already crying.
And I never bought lunch again.
Are you sure you're not related to the "Ralphie" character in "A Christmas Story"? :D My kids went to Catholic elementary school in Denver. Their Kindergarten teacher would dress up in a nun's "penquin" outfit for Halloween. Few kids even knew what she was supposed to be. By the early 80's - nun's dressed like "people"!
Monsoon65
02-26-2009, 15:43
When Dad was on his second tour in Vietnam, my sister and I had just started school (my brother was 18 months old at the time). Dad was getting E-7 pay, plus all the other allowences that guys were given.
We still qualified for reduced price lunches, but Mom wouldn't take it, since she said we were financially doing fine and didn't need to be enrolled in the program.
I guess the idea of being too proud for charity unless you really need it is out of style.
She would grind that stuff up on the weekends singing Slovenian polka music.
. Was raised in the typical Pa. coal mining "patch". Same way here, we'd go to the company story get half a loaf of "baloney" and a jar of pickles and grind up a storm. Then if we were really lucky there'd be a few slices lef for frying.
I still grind my own "Sandwich Spread".
And, on a sunday when I was a kid, you would walk through the patch and hear nothing BUT polka music. In about four different languages.
The folks there treated you like you were their own. Including when you did something wrong.
Then P.C. became popular. A shame.
Surf n Turf
02-26-2009, 17:18
Was talking with my M-I-L. She grew up real poor in rural MS. Kid during the 40's.
She hardly ever got store/white bread. Was raised on biscuits that momma made in the morning. Lunch was 2 country ham biscuits.
She was amazed that the city kids would trade a white bread sandwich for one of those "darned 'ol biscuits".
My school lunch was either a PB&J or Bologna sandwich- hot lunch was a treat.
Pete,
We went thru school at the same time, and I can still taste the country ham biscuits (now my wife makes them for me every couple of months).:D
Milk was .02 cents, and that's exactly the change I received every day.
Everyone was poor, but NO ONE took anything for "free" :mad:
SnT
I guess the idea of being too proud for charity unless you really need it is out of style.
Its not out if style at all, but like all things today all we ever hear about is the crap of our society. There are millions of Americans who work hard every day and never stick their hands out for a freebie but we never hear about them.
When I was in High School most of the kids who were on free or reduced lunch would use their meal ticket to get the daily tray of milk, fruit, main course + veggies. Then they would buy hamburgers, soda, cookies and french fries w/ cash (around $2.00 which was the standard price for lunch). Btw kids who got free lunch also qualified for free breakfast.
Their parents are probably the same ones who come into 7-11 and use their food stamps to buy soda, chips, snacks and other junk food, and then pull out cash to buy cigarettes, lotto tickets, blunt wraps, MD 20/20 etc.
I grew up an Army brat and mostly in Germany. The first time we came to the states (1980), my stepdad was on recruiter duty in his homestate of MN. I remember going to Red Owl (midwestern food chain) with my Mom and watching this lady in front of us at checkout, unloading a huge cartfull of food! She had all the best stuff (steaks, other meats, all kinds of snacks, fresh veggies, etc). Meanwhile, we are living on an E-6 pay (no housing, no commissary, etc) and my mother was very frugal (hell, my clothes were bought at KMart and all the kids knew it..NOW thats embarassing). Well, this lady gave the cashier paper that I had NEVER seen before...my mother told me it was foodstamps and explained what it was when I looked at her as if to say, "she's using monopoly money?". Well, being the wise ass that I am, I blurt out, "WAIT A MINUTE, she doesn't have to work and gets to eat steak and we eat chicken and you and dad work!!?? Are you kidding ME!!???" My mother flushed and looked like she wanted to hide under the cart, the woman stared at me with anger and I met her gaze with a defiance! I couldn't believe it. I ate PB&J or bologna sandwiches every day and this woman got to eat STEAK!!!!???
I guess the more things change, they remain the same. Don't work, get food for free and still complain that somehow its an embarassment.... I DO NOT GET IT! I guess I never will.
(incidently, the more you folks talk about PB&J sandwiches, the more I want one but with this tainted peanut butter scare we had...I dare NOT! Gosh, I miss peanutbutter.)
I was raised on a dairy farm in Northeast Wisconsin when I was a kid. Lunches all winter long were Venison sausage, ground Venison sausage, or fish sandwiches (from the fresh fish left over from supper). All summer long it was Tomato, Cucumber, or Radish sandwiches for lunch, fresh from the garden. Once a month the Milkman would deliver a couple pounds of cheese with the paycheck (dairy farm) and us kids thought we were in heaven because we got cheese & homemade grape jelly sandwiches for lunch. Looking back them days were not so bad, always had food on the table & were happy for what we had.
The lunches were hardly free at one high school I attended but the kitchen staff tried to economize by: (a) making fries by pressing mashed potatoes, and (b) 'cooking' spaghetti by letting the pasta soak in cold water overnight. The salad bar put me in the infirmary. And was it just a coincidence that they served pork chops the same week the tenth graders taking biology did their 'pig practicals'?:confused:
Still, to paraphrase Robert B. Parker, "The worst meal I ever had was wonderful."
doctom54
02-28-2009, 06:35
When I see the title of the thread I think of Robert Heinlein's "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" and the classic line:
There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
Mom always fixed a lunch for us and we frequently traded around. Today I fix my own lunch every morning and 4 out of 5 days it is a PB&J.