I recently learned that some kids are in debt because they can't afford school lunches. Truly the darkest timeline
this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2023
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When I was in elementary school, they wouldn't let you "graduate" to the next grade until you paid your food bill.
Luckily I was poor and qualified for free lunches most years
Yeah, it's quite gross. This is really something that should be part of the school budget.
Investing in things like this are such no-brainers. Not only so they have great ROI via improving educational outcomes, they're the right thing to do. A child's lack of food is not their fault, but their parents and communitys.
like, it seems a bit cruel to lay blame on the parents in this situation.
Not quite sure if you're critiquing my comment or not? I said "parents and community", obviously some parents struggle to be able to put food on the table but I've unfortunately also known parents who despite being able to, do not provide for their children. Regardless, when parents fail the community must step up, schools included which can and should in turn be funded to better be able to provide these services.
ah, i apologize, it seems like i misinterpreted.
no worries sometimes I can write more ambiguously than I intend 😅
Super pumped to live in a state that decided to bring back free lunches (and breakfast) for all gradeschool kids.
The quality could be better, but you have to start somewhere!
Me as well!! Colorado
California has free breakfast and lunch for all public and charter school kids. Before covid and early on districts started doing it but now it is state wide.
Nah! I say we should sell school lunches with proprietary currencies and make them work for it!
Gonna need another hour in the mines before you have enough scrip for that cookie, Timmy!
They should be able to use their Dave & Buster's cards.
Brownie coin!
Wow, I’d forgotten this was even Russell Brand’s cause before he transmogrified seemingly overnight into a rightwing conspiracy grifter rambling about vaccines injecting 15-minutes cities into your blood.
The Black Panther Party was able to provide for hungry children through its free breakfast program. It was targeted by the state because of its capacity to meet people's basic needs.
To subvert the ruthless repression the state inflicts on us we'll need to create our own dual power systems for our communities.
This is the stuff I think about every time I hear we're appropriating more money for another country's war.
This is generally a state issue, so your examples are apples and oranges.
Additionally, the US is crippling Russia by throwing money at Ukraine. This is literally the best deal ever for the US.
This is generally a state issue, so your examples are apples and oranges.
A shallow excuse for the amount of money we pour into warmongering. This should be legislated at the federal level and you know it.
Additionally, the US is crippling Russia by throwing money at Ukraine. This is literally the best deal ever for the US
I imagine kids with school lunch debt would feel differently.
If you think the reason we don't have a federal lunch program for schools is because we are giving money to Ukraine to defend themselves from a foreign aggressor, I don't know where to begin honestly. I guess I should start with "the war started 18mo ago"?
No, the issue is war in general and the extent to which our own people's needs are neglected because of it.
Ukraine is just another excuse for war profiteers to profit. What galls me the most about Ukraine, however, is reading these stories about the monstrous ways our own needs are neglected in order to fund a war that isn't even our own.
You're the one who spot-focused Ukraine so frankly none of our responses should surprise you.
We can easily afford to feed kids. Our bloated military (which I do not support btw) has nothing to do with it. There is no political will to do it. The cost would be negligible in the grand scheme of our budget. You're framing it as a balance thing - to pay for X we have to cut Y - but that's not how the federal budget works at all. By your argument i could go "if we'd just stop paying for medicaid we could afford school lunches." I could arbitrarily pick any government program and say "we fund this instead of that." It makes no sense.
Plus it's not like we were about to then "oh no war in Ukraine" and we canned the idea.
We can easily afford to feed kids.
Agreed.
Our bloated military (which I do not support btw) has nothing to do with it.
And yet you're here defending it anyway.
I am not defending it, in fact I explicitly said I DON'T support our military spending. I'm saying your either/or is patently absurd. Cut military spending, increase military spending, it doesn't matter. It's detached from whether or not we feed our children. They are separate matters.
If you agree we can easily afford it then what are you even on about?
No kid should be hungry at school. Lunch should absolutely be free at school. Also, should be healthy as well.