We got a report from our school district a few months ago, and I’ll tell you, we are NOT in a poor area, nor a wealthy area, just middle class.
Anyways, according to the district report, about 70% of all students were on assisted lunch programs.
Our kids brown sack it. Early in the week we plan our meals for their lunches, so we might make a ham on sunday, then they have ham sammiches, leftover chicken = chicken salad, leftover meatloaf, meatloaf sammiches. You know... how I thought most folks did it, how my folks did it.
Now, when I go into the lot to pick up my kids, I see new cars, fancy cars, my kids friends all have every game system out there and tons of games, big TV’s, they vacation to nice places every year (we have a run down mobile home, in the woods up in the UP where they tent it, and mom and dad sleep in the old leaky mobile home), they’re friends wear the latest Uggs shoes (our kids wear whatever is on sale), etc, but 70% of them are on assisted food programs? I don’t understand it.
Isn’t there some income verification or something? It just struck me that the majority of these folks were just gaming the system.
It’s like I’m the last one in on “the joke”, as if, “if you are not on assistance you are a dumbass”.
If your school district is like the one here, they encourage as many people as possible to sign up for the lunch programs, because the school gets more resources from the district, and the district gets more from the state and Feds, if they have more “underprivileged” students. Every now and then the papers will run an article about the various dodges people us, and the poor efforts at verification. It’s a swindle all around.
Maybe the free lunch will be less attractive when Michelle Obama is planning the menu ;-).