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String of snow days deprives many students of food
hosted ^ | Feb 13

Posted on 02/14/2010 6:42:42 PM PST by JoeProBono

TAKOMA PARK, Md. (AP) -- As back-to-back snowstorms shuttered schools for the week across the mid-Atlantic states, parents fretted about lost learning time, administrators scheduled makeup days and teachers posted assignments online.

But Marla Caplon worried about a more fundamental problem: How would students eat? The two snowstorms that pummeled the region, leaving more than 3 feet of snow in some areas, deprived tens of thousands of children from Virginia to Pennsylvania of the free or reduced-price school lunch that may be their only nutritious meal of the day. The nonprofits that try to meet the need when school is not in session also closed their doors for much of the week, leaving many families looking at bare cupboards. And many parents working hourly jobs were unable to earn any money during the week, as the snow forced businesses to close.

Caplon is a food services supervisor for Montgomery County Public Schools, where about 43,000 children are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. Some also get breakfast, dinner and bags of staple foods to take home for the weekend. The snow days meant children would get none of that until Tuesday, because schools are closed Monday for Presidents Day.

(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...


TOPICS: Food
KEYWORDS: food; globalcooling; jpb; maryland; schoollunch; snowmageddon; snowstorm
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To: kittykat77

If the children are on US soil, they can just die. Unless they’re preborn babies. Then they have to be born first, and then they can just die.

ha ha ha a joke liberal has arrived. Don’t you have an acne treatment you need to attend to?


81 posted on 02/14/2010 7:23:55 PM PST by sgtyork (The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage. Thucydides)
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To: freedumb2003

....Montgomery County Public Schools, where about 43,000 children are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. Some also get breakfast, dinner and bags of staple foods to take home for the weekend.....

43,000 kids get free meals? Why do I see something very wrong with this number.


82 posted on 02/14/2010 7:24:29 PM PST by caww
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To: TypeZoNegative

I figured that much. Anyways, those are things that would be eaten first I’d imagine.


83 posted on 02/14/2010 7:24:49 PM PST by GeronL (Dignity is earned from yourself. Respect is earned from others.)
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To: caww

They’d like to get every kid on free or reduced meals, its just some greedy parents who won’t sign up.


84 posted on 02/14/2010 7:26:34 PM PST by GeronL (Dignity is earned from yourself. Respect is earned from others.)
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To: hinckley buzzard
"The moral of your story is that Americans tend to be generous to a fault when the benificiaries are deserving, and the charity is "voluntary."

That is the key word. Charity is not that when it is compelled at the point of a gun.

85 posted on 02/14/2010 7:26:46 PM PST by blackbart.223 (I live in Northern Nevada. Reid doesn't represent me.)
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To: GeronL

Wow! I didn’t know that!! I’m sure lunches are more than 1.65 too.
How come feeding the kids is on the bottom of the priority list for the poor? While lotto tickets, 40’s, a pack of smokes, a bag of weed, flat screen tv’s, rims, sneakers, car stereo equipment, and jewelry are at the top?

I bet I could eat on a buck a day. These folks can feed their kids. They are just too damn lazy.


86 posted on 02/14/2010 7:27:15 PM PST by goseminoles
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To: guido911

Way to go guido911. This is how we Americans can help each other as individuals in communities, not faceless bureaucrats and massive programs.


87 posted on 02/14/2010 7:27:51 PM PST by sgtyork (The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage. Thucydides)
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To: GeronL

....Donner Pass intermediate school district....lol

The DONNER PARTY..better hope you ain’t invited!


88 posted on 02/14/2010 7:28:27 PM PST by outhousepatrol
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To: JoeProBono

SCREEEEEEECH!

Today, Hillary Clinton won the teradactyl sound alike contest held annually in Stove Pipe, CA.

Judges were stuned by her ability to dislocate her jaw and employ almost inhuman nasal resonance.

Good on ya Hill! You’re a tribute to your namesake Sir Edmund.


89 posted on 02/14/2010 7:29:16 PM PST by Eddie01 (All we every really knew was it was crazy to be doin' it any other way)
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To: JoeProBono

Ramen - 6 for a buck... that and Hungry Jack Mash Potatos saved my live.


90 posted on 02/14/2010 7:30:30 PM PST by Eddie01 (All we every really knew was it was crazy to be doin' it any other way)
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To: kittykat77

I think the poster who said “there must be mass starvation during summer vacation” Summed up the foolishness nicely.


91 posted on 02/14/2010 7:31:40 PM PST by mylife (Opinions: $1.00 Halfbaked: 50c)
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To: Eddie01

92 posted on 02/14/2010 7:32:07 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: guido911

43,ooo kids is not remotely reasonable for a school district...that’s insane!

...my own mom had a hard and tough life with four kids to feed ages 3,4,6,9,..when my dad died....she made it thru with surplus food...going door to door selling cosmetics..slinging hash ...cleaning houses...whatever she had to do she did...we never went hungry..always rice, macaroni,and she (heaven forbid) dared to cook and stretch the little she had. And amazingly we as kids never knew we were poor! That speaks volumes...


93 posted on 02/14/2010 7:32:28 PM PST by caww
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To: Eddie01

LOL! Very Good. (what a bunch of morons that follow this beast)


94 posted on 02/14/2010 7:33:23 PM PST by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: Eddie01

Life WAS EASIER IN 1998


95 posted on 02/14/2010 7:34:21 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: JoeProBono

Hell, life was easier in 2008


96 posted on 02/14/2010 7:36:02 PM PST by eyedigress ((Old storm chaser from the west)?)
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To: kittykat77
"As my beloved Earl says, Karma minds. If you begrude food to some undernourished kids now, don't be surprised if the world doesn't volunteer to change your dirty adult diaper when you're a drooling senile old bastard."

Very articulate and compassionate of you. I suppose you are the one to decide who needs something and who does not. Are you going to point the gun to enforce your opinions? No. You vote for that to be done.

97 posted on 02/14/2010 7:36:46 PM PST by blackbart.223 (I live in Northern Nevada. Reid doesn't represent me.)
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To: Eddie01

I just finished two bricks of chicken ramen noodles with a can of cream of chicken soup added for flavor for my supper.

No joke.

dang, I just remembered I had some frozen broccoli in the freezer I intended to add. Plumb forgot.


98 posted on 02/14/2010 7:37:45 PM PST by mamelukesabre (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
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To: MarineBrat

On the plus side, this can’t be George Bush’s fault. He caused global warming . . .


99 posted on 02/14/2010 7:37:50 PM PST by sig226 (Bring back Jimmy Carter!)
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To: JoeProBono

And as we see - the whole system is upside down. How many of the supposedly “hungry” children actually are starving? Further, how many parents don’t feed their kids, not because they can’t, but because they know the school does?

Funny - I did fine in school, usually skipping any form of breakfast, and eating cafeteria slop for lunch (that I paid for), or in high school - heading to a fast food joint for a quick burger (that I paid for), or just skipped lunch altogether.

Now it is suddenly the taxpayer’s responsibility to see that every child gets at least a breakfast and lunch (and many elementary schools are providing an afternoon snack near the end of the school day).

What the heck is this about???

Nothing like seeing that free/reduced lunch student texting away on their smartphone, wearing $100 shoes, and living off the taxpayer.

Are there some children who really do come from homes that are literally so poor that they cannot afford to feed the kids - yes. But the number is far smaller, even in this sad economy than the numbers would imply.

But we have successfully raised up multiple generations of progressively government-dependent citizens.

I have told the story many times of my wife when she was a student in school - who got an award when she graduated for never missing a single day of school... - and who qualified for free lunch, had only her father working as a farm hand (extra-ordinarily low pay), yet she had all she needed - as did her older brother. They chose to not even have a phone in their home until she was 15. Yet her parents paid for band instruments for them. They never missed a meal (though Miracle Whip sandwiches did sometimes come into play), and she even had a car to drive her senior year. Her parents believed that they had to have priorities. Her folks didn’t (and don’t) drink or smoke (her dad does chew a little tobacco), they use very little credit, but considered a roof, food, and clothing to be more important than cable TV, high-priced fashions, and the “extras”.

IT is all in what your priorities are. Today, welfare parents now expect the government to completely pay for/raise their children. they don’t want any of the responsibility.

Here in Arkansas - a carton of cigarettes (brand name) runs north of $40. Even at a relatively “Mild” habit of 1 pack per day - that is 3 cartons per month- over $120. School lunches here are still well under $2 per day. X 20 days a month in school = $40. Schools also have breakfast at just over $1. So add that and you get $70 per month for a child to get fed 2 meals every day the are in school - and that is without the reduced lunch rates. That 1 pack per day habit could fund two kids having 2 meals per day.

We won’t even go into liquor, beer, wine, or even illegal drugs. Suffice it to say - priorities are what have to change. It is amazing what one can live on if they have their priorities right. No-one is “entitled” to anything just by drawing breath, other than their constitutionally guaranteed rights (not the ones invented by liberals).

I believe we would find that most Americans would be FAR more generous and open to helping those TRULY in need, if they were not already having their pay gutted with taxes to pay for the leeches in society. In fact, I honestly believe that the TRULY poor (beyond their control) could be taken care of by private means if the government got out of the business of giveaways. In fact, pretty much all social programs could be done away with - if only we were allowed to do the work.

But hey - who am I?


100 posted on 02/14/2010 7:37:56 PM PST by TheBattman (They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature...)
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