What a great move in the right direction! It’s disappointing that in this country, so many children are unable to have food for lunch. It’s so bad that there have been charities made to help eliminate school lunch debt.
People often blame the parents, but they fail to realize that more often than not, the issue is more systematic vs just the isolated issue of “bad parenting.”
If we need to a charity to discharge food debt at school for students, it is indicative that we are live in degeneracy. About time we start calling this shit for what it is, instead of engaging in political circle jerks to make participants will feel good about their political "values"
I’m just hoping that we can develop new patterns of dialogue here. On articles like these, I’m already seeing the same types of comments that we’d get over on Reddit, and I bet half of those were bots.
I've also been noticing a recent influx of that kind of toxic, useless, sarcastic trolling "dialogue" that wasn't here a month ago when I made the migration. I hate it
Not sure where that comment is going. This is surely a good thing but it is a drop in a bucket. Adequate social policy is not remedied by one good act. Until every child has access to food at school, there is nothing really to celebrate. Which let's be real, won't be happening any time soon.
We can still celebrate progress, especially at the state level. We certainly shouldn't throw up a Mission Accomplished banner when the same people who refused to feed children in the recent past are going to roadblock efforts in their states.
That’s basically how I feel. People work hard to make progress like this. Is it depressing that we even need to fight for basic nutrition for children? Absolutely! But if we always react to that progress with cynicism and negativity, it might lead folks to work a little less hard next time.
My family fostered 40-50 kids over a ten year period, and I’ve seen what starvation can do to a kid. Most people can’t imagine that trauma, and the fact that his has become a state-level issue should be reason to vote out every single politician in Washington, if you ask me.
I don’t understand why it’s such a hard concept for politicians to side with. US politics is just a cesspool of political lobbyists throwing money at politicians to get them to act in the best interests of corporations.
The people share part of the responsibility for voting for those politicians over and over again. Yes, they are falling for corporate messaging but they are also adults who should be able to vote out the politicians who deny funding for feeding children.
Unfortunately a lot of people are selfish pricks who would rather children starve than pay an extra dollar in taxes.
Strangely, I feel like even businesses should be behind this idea. Foodservice companies like Sodexo, Aramark, Sysco, etc should be pushing for this 100%. School food (like any food) doesn’t come out of thin air. “Lunch ladies” aren’t going to the grocery stores to find what to make. All these school districts have contracts with a foodservice company like the ones I mentioned to provide the food and meals to school cafeterias.
By providing free meals to students, governments are also providing guaranteed revenue to these companies. Because now the school is providing ALL the lunches for kids, whether or not some kid still come with a lunchbox from home. That’s gotta be more revenue than before. Admittedly, I don’t know that for sure.
To me, it seems like a win-win. Kids aren’t going hungry all day, and big business gets to make its money.
These companies provide prison grade food tho... we need either better vendors or the state needs to take over. Current situation is unacceptable from nutrition quality PoV unless the goal is to prep this kids to eat prison and/or fast food.
But I guess firs thing is to ensure that every child has a meal...
Oh for sure. But I agree; let’s get kids fed, even if it isn’t the best. Then we can work on getting more nutritious, healthier foods. I remember having chicken tenders and a bottle of pop seemingly everyday in high school. Or those rectangular pizzas, ugh. I don’t know how I’m alive today, haha.
I bet these companies could provide better food. But I imagine, as always, it’s a matter of cost. Of what school districts and families can afford. I have a hard time seeing the state or some government getting involved and providing foodservices directly. But that’d be interesting to at least try. I wonder if there are any school districts where the school or district themselves manage foodservice entirely themselves. If so, I wonder if it’s better, worse, or about the same as the average.
I saw documentary on one but it is not easy. School Districts are vehicles for corruption and they dole these contracts out to the big boys for kickbacks. Most of contract value gets wasted, ie not spend on quality of food but to grease the machine.
My great grandmother also fostered kids for a decade or more. She told us a story of one kid in particular who wouldn't let go of his plate after they had dinner because he was afraid no one would ever give it back to him.
There isn't a fiber of my body that could ever deny meals for children. It's the perfect use of my tax money.
The worst we had was a three year-old girl who made a habit of stealing and hiding food, because that’s how she’d survived. The habit kept up for almost a year before she realized she was safe.
