Why Are You Still Packing Lunch for Your Kids? (barf alert)

New York Times ^ | February 10, 2020 | Jennifer Gaddis

[karpov]

...

By my calculation, roughly 20 million eligible children, mostly from middle- and upper-middle-class families, continue to opt out of the national program by bringing lunch or by buying special à la carte food items not covered by the program.

As an individual family decision, packing lunches might seem like the best option, especially for children with special dietary needs. But when millions of families do so, their actions reduce the political will and financial resources necessary to make public school lunches better for everyone.

The Trump administration isn’t much help. According to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, providing schools with the flexibility to plan menus that appeal to students’ taste preferences is a way to attract more paying customers to the federal program and reduce food waste. Mr. Purdue has pursued this strategy for making school lunch “great again.”

In practice, this has meant enacting policies that loosen restrictions on the amount of sodium, flavored milk and refined grains that can be served in school meals. The department’s own data shows that participation in the national lunch program is higher in cafeterias that serve healthier meals, yet the administration’s latest proposal, released last month, would allow schools to serve more french fries and fewer green vegetables.

Despite these setbacks, in recent years, community activists have won universal free school meals in many of the nation’s poorest schools and in some large districts like Boston and New York City public schools. Many more districts have started robust farm-to-school programs that support local food and farm economies. And Democrats are talking about universal free lunch on the campaign trail.

There are limits, however, to what even the most progressive school food service programs can achieve when roughly 40 percent of eligible students continue to opt out of the national program.

[ealgeone]

$5 says she never ate in the school cafeteria.

[Bethaneidh]

mmm, Lunch.

[MayflowerMadam]

“A peanut butter sandwich (no jelly!) and a banana kept me sustained for years.”

Every day for years my lunch was a fried egg sandwich with mustard. No fridge for it, and I didn’t die. (I still love those sandwiches.)

[sjm_888]

Her bio mentions nothing about being married or having any kids.

[darkangel82]

It also says nothing comprehensible or anything about her having any actual, real-world skill.

[rlmorel]

"...But when millions of families do so, their actions reduce the political will and financial resources necessary to make public school lunches better for everyone..."

Jesus. Speaking about school lunches and using terms like "political will" for...school lunches.

These reprobates on the Left cannot even handle the election results from a small state without bungling them, and they want the Federal government to leverage "political will" to mandate what goes into the stomachs of children over the decisions of the parents?????

The people on the Left pushing this are power-mad totalitarians.

[rlmorel]

"...Jennifer E. Gaddis is an assistant professor of Civil Society and Community Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison..."

Well, that explains it in a nutshell.

[Truthoverpower]

Nanny state bull crap

My kids( 10,13) get up every morning and make their own lunch and then get them selves at school

The 13-year-old is a bit lazy and has me give him a ride to school and he walks home after ;)

[samtheman]

My 5th grader has been packing a lunch since 1st grade.

Occasionally we ask him if he wants to try school lunch and he says NO.

His reasons:

1. Not enough time for lunch and waiting in line for food makes it worse.
2. He likes our food better than their food.

My additional reasons for agreeing with him:
1. I know our food is clean and non-contaminated during preparation.
2. Anything that a leftist wants me to do is highly suspicious, especially when it’s accompanied with moral fervor.

An additional aside: every year they want me to fill out a form to qualify for reduced price lunch.

Here’s how the conversation goes, every year:

Them: you have to return the form to qualify.
Me: I don’t want reduced price lunch. I don’t want lunch at all.
Them: you have to fill out the form anyway, in order to qualify.
Me: I don’t want to qualify. For anything.
Them: you have to fill out the form anyway.
Me: I called the state office of food nutrition [whatever the governing body actual name is] and they said no need to fill out the form if you don’t want reduced price lunch
Them: you have to fill out the form anyway.
Me: (no answer, ignore them)
Them: you have to fill out the form anyway.
Me: (no answer, ignore them)
Them: (finally stop hounding me)

Repeat, every single year. Same merry-go-round. I should start billing them for my time.

And BTW, the form is FULL of intrusive questions.

[Buckeye McFrog]

She brings a feminist perspective to food politics through her research on the social, political, and economic organization of public school lunch programs.

A solution in search of a First-World problem if ever I've seen one.

[married21]

One of ours wanted school lunch every day and the other never went into the cafeteria at all, preferring brown bag. Parents are responsible for their kids’ nutrition and overall health. It’s their call, for better or worse.

[MayflowerMadam]

“Why are you still sending your kids to Government (Marxist/LGBTQP indoctrination) schools?”

Funny story. My nephew sends their three kids to public school. Recently, the oldest, who’s nine, came home gushing over how wonderful taxes are. She learned it at school, of course.

So at dinner my nephew reached over and took a bite of what she was eating, a food she loved. She got angry and asked why he did that and he said “It’s a tax you have to pay to live here.” He did that a few times the next couple weeks, and now if you ask her about taxes, “I HATE TAXES! Taxes are bad!” Big bites were Democrat taxes; little bites were Republican taxes.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

The teachers I know all talk about the amount of food thrown away by schools every day. If I were a bum I’d hang out by the school dumpster and eat, if not like a king, at least like a kid.

[MikelTackNailer]

Growing up I had to make lunches for all my siblings(5). The night before.My children made their own lunches too. It meant you had more time at recess and fewer lines.

Plus being able to snack out of your locker between classes if you needed a boost. But then you said:

Losing your retainer was always a problem though.

And I thought "What a terribly careless playground lawyer". Then "Oh. Teeth. Duh."

[dfwgator]

‘F You, that’s why, Jennifer!”