Free School Lunch

[afchic]

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.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by afchic

.....'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.

[afchic]

Originally Posted by Pete

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.

[Gypsy]

Originally Posted by Pete

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.

[Peregrino]

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.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Gypsy

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.

Richard's $.02

[1982fxr]

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]

Hmmmmmmmm, Cheese sandwiches were the normal lunch for most of my grammar school years (not very keen on American Cheese anymore though).

That, or as mentioned above, PB&J. Never felt humiliated and always happy to have food of some type.

[AngelsSix]

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!

[Gypsy]

Originally Posted by Richard

I suffer a PTSD episode every time I see one of those cafeteria scenes on The Simpsons.

Richard's $.02

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.

[PSM]

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! The only change was potato chips or Fritos.

Pat

[frostfire]

Originally Posted by longrange1947

Never felt humiliated and always happy to have food of some type.

Originally Posted by 1982fxr

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? There are truly needy people out there, then there are those who truly need a swift heiny kick

[Richard]

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

[Puertoland]

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.

[Pete]

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.