School Lunches Are A Right, Not A Privilege

The Huffington Post ^ | May 23, 2017 | David Sandman, President and CEO, New York State Health Foundation

[2ndDivisionVet]

As a candidate, Mayor de Blasio promised to enact universal free school lunch in New York City public schools. The Mayor has aggressively pursued policies to decrease inequality in the City and clearly understands the important links among food access, health, and learning. From affordable housing to universal pre-K, the Mayor has worked to address the needs of poor and working class New Yorkers. But universal school lunch sticks out as an unfulfilled pledge.

I’ve written previously about the merits of eliminating school lunch fees and getting more kids to eat lunch at school. A hungry child can’t learn or realize her full potential. Hungry kids find it harder to do what is good for their health and engage in a natural part of growing up: being physically active and playing.

Many kids in New York City public schools do already qualify for free or reduced price lunch, but many of those who are eligible do not participate in the lunch program. What stops them? It’s simple: Stigma. Bullying. Shaming.

Students, especially in high school, skip the lunch program to avoid the embarrassment associated with being poor. Our schools provide textbooks, pencils, and other supplies to all students, regardless of income, but when it comes to food, public schools discriminate. Forcing kids to identify themselves as poor results in lasting shame and harm to fragile psyches. And make no mistake, the stigma is real and painful. It creates a false sense of inferiority, which is especially hard to shake when it is established at a young age....

[alloysteel]

Lunch consisted of a sandwich wrapped in waxed paper, an apple, and SOMETIMES a slice of cake, also wrapped in waxed paper, all packed in an industrial-grade black lunch box with snap closures and which opened up with a place to hold a Thermos bottle (though my mother never packed a Thermos).

No such thing as lunch money those days.

[4yearlurker]

I too remember walking home for lunch in the early 1960s.

[cgbg]

Nothing that someone else has to pay for is a ‘right.’ That includes food, shelter, clothing, education, and medical care. None of these things are rights.

Well, unless we are all slaves of the state and the state is entitled to the fruits of our labor. Then everything is a "right" and our wonderful leaders get to decide who gets what. :-(

[Yaelle]

Don’t get me started on the free breakfasts. Used to make me so mad. The schools decided to allow the parent into the cafeteria so they can be together for the child’s breakfast. I used to see the parent go in, pile up their kid’s tray with everything. Sit with the kid, then take all the food he didn’t eat out to their car (nicer than MY CAR) and take it to work or wherever with them.

STOP THESE PROGRAMS. All of them. Have canned or dehydrated emergency rations for really hungry abused kids and leave it at that. Take care of your children. Anyone can get food stamps and that ought to do it.

[Alberta's Child]

Doing it cheap defeats the whole purpose of this "privilege."

Behind every government-funded "privilege" is an army of lobbyists representing all of the various industry groups looking to force the taxpayers to buy their products.

[Red Badger]

[Chickensoup]

Every child has a right to lunches and breakfasts, suppers and snacks.

Provided by a parent or caregiver.

Daily.

instead of being trapped in a living situation where the people who have custody of him or her do not have the ability, fortitude or interest in even feeding them.

[fungoking]

We qualified for free lunches when I was a kid. We never signed up because, to quote my dad, “It’s not the government’s job to feed my kids.”
Mom packed our lunches and the result is 4 productive adults that are contributors to society, not takers.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

When I was a grad school kid in the Fifties, my public school in Independence Ohio had a big kitchen staffed by older ladies. Lunch was 35 cents, and it was always good! Transferred to private school in 9th grade and lived in the dorm. Full time food staff. Always good except for the mystery meat.

[jughandle]

Thought school lunches were something you could buy if you wanted..?

[Yaelle]

I was in the hospital, exhausted and drugged, after having a baby (c section). I happened to be all alone at the time she walked in. She was soft spoken and had a little clipboard and came to tell me how myself and my baby could get free food through WIC. She tried to sign me up right there. I kept trying to stop her. Even through my haze I was a conservative and I told her, I do not qualify. She insisted that I did. I did NOT. It was HARD SELL, me drugged and out of it, and her PUSHING HARD. I doubt many younger new moms would have been able to refuse her.

[DungeonMaster]

And it’s for the chillllldren.

[I want the USA back]

Taking money forcibly from the productive to pay for this is a crime, not a law.

[KeyLargo]

ILLINOIS

Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Average Illinois family to pay state $1125 more, thanks to IL Dems tax hike

79711

SPRINGFIELD - If you’re able to tuck away $1,125 by skipping Starbucks and walking more in 2017, looks like that money won’t be safe, because the Illinois Senate Democrats voted Tuesday to hike the average Illinois family’s taxes just that much in 2017.

Here’s the scoop from the Illinois Policy Institute:

Continue reading “Average Illinois family to pay state $1125 more, thanks to IL Dems tax hike” »

Wednesday, May 24, 2017 at 08:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: Illinois, Illinois Review, tax hike

http://www.illinoisreview.typepad.com/

[Noumenon]

I think the Mooch's prison food lunch program has moved on to these: the Four Fingers of Death.

[Tammy8]

What’s even more irritating is that schools now promote these ‘FREE’ meals, throughout the summer! And, guess what? You don’t even have to be of school age to receive this ‘FREE’ meal!

Oh they do promote them for sure. I was with a youth group and there was a setup close to the building for the summer lunch program. None of us even lived there; we had plans for lunch for the kids and the lady doing the summer lunch absolutely hounded us to have the kids eat there. We told her politely we were not interested, but she was not going to take no for an answer- literally following us down the sidewalk like a huckster. One of the other mothers had to finally lose it with her and tell her they were NOT free lunches and people like us paid for them and had made plans to feed our kids without someone else paying. She was so insistent we could not believe it and wondered if she was getting paid by the meal.

[Ancient Man]

Anything that’s paid for through confiscatory taxation is a privilege ... not a right.

[KC_Lion]

but many of those who are eligible do not participate in the lunch program. What stops them? It’s simple: Stigma. Bullying. Shaming.

I literally laughed out loud.

I have three words for you regarding that when I was in KCK Public Schools barley a decade ago.

Flaming. Hot. Cheetos.

The kids with free lunch always seemed to have money for snacks.

[KC_Lion]

We qualified for free lunches when I was a kid. We never signed up because, to quote my dad, “It’s not the government’s job to feed my kids.”

We didn't qualify for free lunch so I took my lunch to school everyday. My parents still had to pay for all those kids "free" lunches though. (Who always seemed to have money for the Flaming Hot Cheetos from the vending machine)

[KC_Conspirator]

Enter Sandman, pointing out clearly that tax payer paid school lunches are in the Constitution.