No free lunch: N.J. school will deny students meals if they have no money, report says

Star Ledger ^ | September 8, 2013

[SMGFan]

WILLINGBORO — It seems ripped from the pages of Dickens: A hungry child approaches the school cafeteria worker, meal in hand. The worker promptly throws the meal in the trash and sends the child away unfed. Why? The child's parents have let the lunch account run dry.

[jocon307]

“...they give the kids a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a carton of milk.”

that seem reasonable, in fact that’s all a lunch should be, although I still remember the cr*ppy but somehow still good tuna sandwiches that I could buy in HS for like $2-

[EQAndyBuzz]

Yup, that lunch costs all of a buck. Add in a half pint of milk and the kid has his daily intake.

[HiTech RedNeck]

So weird, though. Roles have gotten twisted and ossified into caricatures of what the good Lord intended life on earth to be like.

Feed the kid... and send a bill home with him. Might be paid, might not, but at least they tried to close the loop. Deduct that from foodstamps if need be... that would be an appropriate link (no pun intended).

[AKinAK]

Most of the kids are on welfare which includes in that money three meals a day for everyone in the family. Reduced price meals or free meals only gives the parent(s) the extra money needed to buy drugs or booze. If a kid is on welfare and hasn’t any money for lunch, the child needs to be turned over to Child Protection Agency and the parent(s) jailed for neglect.

[Still Thinking]

And creepy-ass!

[erkelly]

My mother was a teacher, began teaching during WW2. She was horrified at the thought of a child in her classroom ever going hungry, and she would always pay for any child's meal and/or milk break. She said it happened because the parents had no money, or it because the child lost her lunch money or forgot it. If it was the latter, a sheep-faced parent would show up and reimburse her. If the former, she would usually get a thank you note. She said all of her colleagues always felt the same way. How things have changed!

[digger48]

1. That peanut butter might spark an allergic reaction with a fellow student in a classroom in another annex of the school.

2. Jelly? Do I need to tell Moochelle on you about your failure to obey the new rules about sweets?

3. That tree-killing paper bag just screams out about your indifference to the environment and your hatred of trees.

4. Apples feel pain.

[Still Thinking]

If I was a kid I’d probably dodge the chickpeas, fried grasshoppers, etc from Moo and go hungry or bring a peanut butter sandwich. But it is the Socialist Republic of Maryland which probably dictates that you must eat school lunches and that contraband (anything) that you bring from home is barred.

Which makes bringing your own mandatory. Defiance to totalitarian busybodies is not optional.

[dfwgator]

What a concept! Feeding your own kid.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Parents have become distanced from kids and the social norms have encouraged, not discouraged this.

[Still Thinking]

4. Apples feel pain.

Then bite a liberal instead. (Make sure your shots are up-to-date.)

[rawhide]

Would it not be wiser to collect the money at the beginning of the lunch line, rather than the end? This way if the child has no money, then the food is not tossed.

And surely there must be another way to keep the child from going hungry if the parent(s) fail to refill the account? Perhaps leftovers from the previous day? Just thinking?

[riri]

My kids schools have pretty much always done this. They get a cheese sandwich and milk. Cheese, bread, and milk-no dinero, no comida.

Ofcourse, shawty eats on my dime all day long (breakfast and lunch) and doesn't have to worry about running out of lunch money.

[SamAdams76]

For years, I was sent to school with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, some celery stalks and maybe a Ding-Dong or a Twinkie. All of which resided in my Partridge Family lunchbox. I also had lunchboxes of the Banana Splits, Speed Racer and Evil Knievel. I don't think they had a lunch box for Archie Bunker or I would have had that one too.

All this talk about how children are being denied "hot lunches" in school, like it is some kind of right, is laughable.

When I got to 8th grade, back in 1975, the school finally started offering "hot lunches" for something like 75 cents. On Mondays, you got a crusty fish stick. On Wednesday, you got macaroni. On Fridays, you got a gloppy square of pizza. I don't remember what they had on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

[greeneyes]

Grand daughter would rather have peanut butter and jelly sandwich than the school lunch.LOL

In fact it would probably be better for most of the kids than what they usually eat.

I know my memory is not so good, but mostly I liked our school lunches especially when younger - they did get worse with time. I was a picky eater, and never liked every thing on my plate. I really liked spinach for some reason, and the teacher and all the kids at the table used to give me their spinach to eat. Can’t stand the stuff now. Isn’t that strange?

But oh my some of the stuff was soooo good. Like those augratin potatoes made with the government cheese. Great chili with government cheese sandwiches. Turkey, dressing, homemade rolls and green beans. And every Thursday, homemade cinnamon rolls that would make all the cinnabon places at Malls jealous.LOL

We had some goooooood cooks!

[Edward Teach]

"If I was a kid I’d probably dodge the chickpeas, fried grasshoppers, etc from Moo and go hungry or bring a peanut butter sandwich. But it is the Socialist Republic of Maryland which probably dictates that you must eat school lunches and that contraband (anything) that you bring from home is barred."

A lot of schools, especially here in pinko socialist Kanuckistan have banned peanut butter (the whole world is supposed to coddle the one or two kids who can't have it, dontcha know). Bringing it onto school property is almost worse than bringing a gun.

[faithhopecharity]

kids all over America are throwing their new ‘healthy michelle’ lunches into the garbage anyway

let’s close down this idea that schools are also restaurants.
they already have plenty of trouble just teaching basic ABC’s.

let the parents send their little precious bundles of joy to school with sack lunches. it works just FINE!

and it might remind the parents that they actually have a few parental responsibilities, too

who knows, the next thing.. might be... the parents making sure their rug rats actually do some homework for a change?

or is that hoping for too much?

(note that whenver enough Chinese immigrants move into a town, the school achievement scores shoot straight up)

[Revel]

Gee I remember very well that when I went to school then you could not get a free lunch unless you were on the free lunch program for very low income people. If you did not have any money or you had not qualified for the program(including meeting the programs filing requirements) then you did not get a lunch from the school. End of story.

[boop]

Yeah what was the deal with school lunch pizza?

Ours always had a mushy crust. Terrible.

It takes a special kind of government involvement to foul up pizza.

Maybe it came in a can and was ladled onto the tray.

[workerbee]

All this talk about how children are being denied "hot lunches" in school, like it is some kind of right, is laughable.

I was in Catholic school for grades 1 - 8, and while there was a kitchen onsite for various church-related functions, we didn't have "cafeteria" meals. Everyone brought his/her own lunch, and we (gasp!) ate at our desks. We were even expected to clean up after ourselves!

So, yeah, I get where you're coming from. Maybe because I'm female, because I'm a mother, who knows.... I would have a really hard time seeing a kid being told "no lunch for you!" day after day, just because the parent was a jerk. So in that respect I'm glad (at least in our school system) there is some sort of provision for the no-pays (as I wrote earlier, cheese sandwich and milk). Of course, then there's the free breakfast.... ughh...