School forces 25 hungry students to throw away lunches when they couldn’t pay

Originally posted by goou111
reply to post by Hefficide

 

I got so sick of black eyed peas and cornbread I cant even eat them anymore lol

I didn't even know that was possible. Pass me your share please.

Oh and a little hot sauce if you have it. Making myself hungry.

I lived with my dad and he couldn't cook much of anything so a lot of times he would make one big meal and we'd eat it for the whole week. Black eyed peas and potatoes was a mainstay at my house growing up. I've had my share but I still like it.

The good thing was I didn't know we were poor. Well, that was until high school.

This may come across as callous, but don't have kids if you can't feed them.

If schools start feeding kids for free, it's only a matter of days until most kids will come to school with no lunch.

EDIT: And isn't giving underfed children free lunches exactly socialism? Just wondering how many "anti-socialists" are FOR free lunches.

Originally posted by DaTroof

If schools start feeding kids for free, it's only a matter of days until most kids will come to school with no lunch.

EDIT: And isn't giving underfed children free lunches exactly socialism? Just wondering how many "anti-socialists" are FOR free lunches.

edit on 4-4-2013 by DaTroof because: (no reason given)

I dont agree.. I think schools should feed all kids for free.. Whats more important then making sure they eat?

It should just be a part of the budget..

reply to post by DaTroof

EDIT: And isn't giving underfed children free lunches exactly socialism? Just wondering how many "anti-socialists" are FOR free lunches

I really dont look at it as free, since I pay so much in taxes

And I can't think of a better way to spend my tax $$ then making sure hungry kids eat at school

reply to post by DaTroof


Socialism is when the workers own the means of production.

Feeding poor children is just humane.

Originally posted by DaTroof
This may come across as callous, but don't have kids if you can't feed them.

If schools start feeding kids for free, it's only a matter of days until most kids will come to school with no lunch.

EDIT: And isn't giving underfed children free lunches exactly socialism? Just wondering how many "anti-socialists" are FOR free lunches.

edit on 4-4-2013 by DaTroof because: (no reason given)

Sometimes life throws you a curve such as a job layoffs, extended illnesses, deaths, etc. and with the best planning you can't predict what tomorrow will bring.

I wouldn't worry about people taking advantage of free lunches. I suspect the government to be privy to your bank accounts soon enough. Anyway, If they can't put together a system of that requires proof of financial hardship they have no business trying to educate children.

I can remember when I went to a parochial grade school and kids got free lunches. I thought they were lucky because they got it free. I was a kid and didn't understand the reason. Does social justice always have to be socialism?

It is heartbreaking because it doesn't have to be this way. Wasting food is wrong. Lacking the common decency to feed hungry children is shameful.

Maybe a solution would be to provide lunches at no cost to all.

Quit throwing money away and make children a priority.
e.g.

Obama Admin Gives College $423,000 to Study Proper Use of Condoms
www.lifenews.com...

I make a habit of reading the whole thread before responding, but I can't in this case. This is sickening! Are we so attached to money that we cannot feed hungry children?

Who ever made this decision should be shot dead as an example. A bit extreme, no, just the need to reset societies values.

Sickening.



P

Don't criminals in prison get 4 squares?

I think some facts are being forgotten about here. This particular school district has decided to contract out food service to a company. Some school districts still employee their food service workers and buy the food wholesale. So since this is a completely separate company paid by the school to provide food service I can understand them not taking a loss when families don't pay for the food.

Would it be fair for any place that serves food ( Burger King, Denny's, ect) to be expected to serve food to any child that walks in and doesn't have money to pay? This company has to make a profit to stay in business and every unpaid for meal is profit loss.

And please let's not be over dramatic, missing one lunch is not "going hungry". I didn't eat lunch today and I didn't "go hungry"' If the kid missed lunch it is the parent/s fault. Every single public school system has a reduced/free lunch program for the kids if the family qualifies. Does it suck that the kids didn't get lunch? Yes Is it the schools fault? No

I bet there are TV's, cell phones, cable, and internet at the homes of these "starving" children. Priority people. Parents make sure your children are clothed, sheltered, and fed; THEN pay for crap that is a luxury.

Originally posted by Carreau
I think some facts are being forgotten about here. This particular school district has decided to contract out food service to a company. Some school districts still employee their food service workers and buy the food wholesale. So since this is a completely separate company paid by the school to provide food service I can understand them not taking a loss when families don't pay for the food.

Would it be fair for any place that serves food ( Burger King, Denny's, ect) to be expected to serve food to any child that walks in and doesn't have money to pay? This company has to make a profit to stay in business and every unpaid for meal is profit loss.

And please let's not be over dramatic, missing one lunch is not "going hungry". I didn't eat lunch today and I didn't "go hungry"' If the kid missed lunch it is the parent/s fault. Every single public school system has a reduced/free lunch program for the kids if the family qualifies. Does it suck that the kids didn't get lunch? Yes Is it the schools fault? No

I bet there are TV's, cell phones, cable, and internet at the homes of these "starving" children. Priority people. Parents make sure your children are clothed, sheltered, and fed; THEN pay for crap that is a luxury.

All good points..

Missing one lunch is not going hungry and companies do need to make a profit.

But they threw the food away its not the kids fault there is no $ in their pocket or in their lunch account

Although my son always did let me know when his lunch account was low

I suppose that lottery money didn't make it into the school lunch budget. This is monstrous. Especially at this time in our economic messed up times.

reply to post by goou111


I never said it was the kids fault. If the food was served and then returned because of nonpayment, then by health code it had to be thrown away. It can't be reserved to another child. These are middle school kids 12,13,14 they are not 6 year olds.

making them throw away their lunch is just wrong and a disgusting state of affairs.

i still don't understand why prisoners, who are bored 23 hours of the day, aren't made to work growing food for the elderly and schools and to feed themselves. keeping somebody in prison apparently costs more than an average family can earn in a few years so why aren't there prison farms where the food they produce goes toward the reduction of prison costs, and the betterment of the elderly and childrens needs?

So they would rather throw the food away than just let some kids eat it? That doesn't even make sense. How does that even sit well with them? I wonder if they had kids and how would they deal with that as a parent if someone did that to one of their kids

My old school in PA would give you a full lunch if you couldn't pay the lunch ladies didnt believe in seeing kids go hungry.

reply to post by Carreau


Im sure the are paid by contract not per meal.

In my country public schools serve breakfast and lunch for free.
It's not socialism, it's common sense.

Throwing away food it's criminal, even more so when it's children going hungry.

CNN has a story on this now
www.cnn.com...

Students at an Attleboro, Massachusetts, middle school went hungry this week, if they had a negative balance on their pre-paid lunch cards.

Five cents of debt was enough for cafeteria employees at the Coehlo Middle School to instruct kids at least one day this week to dump out the food they would have normally eaten, CNN affiliate WJAR in Rhode Island reported

over 5 cents

From my understanding if the school is registered with federal school lunch program they get reimbursed by the federal government for serving meals. They have to follow guidelines around portion control and nutrition but I was under the impression most schools followed this so technically they could give food away but they don't.

Link to federal regulations on making food accessible

I think people are reading the article all wrong.

These are not poor kids that are on free or reduced lunch programs. These are kids whose parents pre-paid, and who then didn't followup and ensure their bills were paid.

The onus here is really on the kids' parents.

True, the school should have instead, immediately contacted the parents of the kids involved.

I'm sure I could have qualified for free/reduced lunch when I was in high school, but we were too proud to. I paid for it every day, mostly out of my own pocket (I worked while in high school). In middile school, my parents did, or I brown-bagged it.

The ENTIRE responsibility here, is on the PARENTS. If they couldn't pay the pre-paid bill, they needed to send a lunch with the kid. Simple as that. People should throw the stone at the right target here.