Posted on 01/18/2015 6:58:37 PM PST by iowamark
First came lunch, then breakfast. Now, schools are serving dinner, too.
There’s a growing demand for schools to feed students dinner before they come home, according to the Associated Press.
Many low-income students are already provided with breakfast and lunch while they are at school. As part of the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act—a law signed by President Obama in 2010—a pilot program was developed to provide free or low-price meals after school as well.
As of last year, about 1 million students across the country received dinner or an after-school snack before going home.
“When kids are hungry, they don’t pay attention,” Bennett Kayser, a school board member for the Los Angeles Unified School District, told the AP. “This is something that should have started years ago.”
Evelyn Ruballos, 10, noted that she “usually only eats crackers” after school. “And then I just go to sleep,” she said.
The demand for dinner exceeds those who are in need: Some busy families have expressed desire for their children to come home already fed, freeing up time after school for sports, homework or family activities.
Rachel Dunifon, a policy professor at Cornell University, told the AP that the meals might “help alleviate stress.”
“It could actually be good and open up more time for families,” she said.
Rachel Sheffield, a policy analyst for The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society, said that expanding a broken welfare system without first solving its problems is not an efficient way of helping those in need.
“The federal government currently operates about a dozen programs that provide food assistance to poor and lower-income Americans,” Sheffield observed. “On top of food programs, there are about 70 other means-tested government welfare programs that provide cash, housing, medical care and social services.
“Tragically, this welfare system has failed to truly help the poor achieve self-sufficiency. Rather than continuing to expand a broken system, policymakers need to work to reform it.”
All moochers and parasites need to have their children taken away from them if they want their gubmint benefits to continue. These kids will find loving homes that can actually instill good work ethic.
If we fund it, they will come.
I couldn’t believe it the first time I saw signs showing the summer meal hours (all three meals) outside of a school when school was out for the summer. Unreal. Especially when the majority of these families are also receiving food stamps.
Are these meals all Michelle approved?
The punishment fits the crime.
This is kind of silly. With food Stamps, housing vouchers and free Medicaid, why are we in need of more feeding opportunities? When was the last time a person died from hunger in the U.S.? Besides Terri Schiavo?
And the welfare benefits to momma are going to be reduced, right?
This is a country where even poor people live well.
Why do you think people are banging the doors and climbing over fences to come here?
Life in America can be hard but its still a lot better than where they lived before.
True. It is a country where pouring water on someones face is considered torture. I suppose a four hundred pound mother with an obese set of children can be considered starving.
Not gonna happen.
The GOP doesn’t want to be accused of taking food out of mom’s hands and the mouths of babes.
There may some trimming here and there but no entitlement is going to be eliminated.
Its a vote loser.
I always thought the school should pay for the pens and notebooks and stuff instead of sending kids home with a shopping list. But dinner?
Next up, new Nike sneakers for every inner city kid, and an X-box.
My four children eat at home thank you. Funny that you can’t get free lunches if you make over 40K (which I don’t care about the free lunches) but talk about screwing the middle class.
What the heck put them up for the night too. This is getting ridiculous. They get Summer food too. Talk about getting food stamps and not needing to buy food.
“We accept EBT cards”
Well at least they call it that. I have seen it advertised as “independence cards”...I shit you not. It was awhile ago but I was sick to my stomach after seeing that.
You start that and they're gonna want the same benefits Lord Foul is giving to the kids his coyotes are bringing in.
lol. True. I can not believe this is the same country that I have lived in for 45 years. If you would have showed me this country when I was 18, I would have started laughing at the humor of it because clearly you are joking.
Have a heart man. Some kids are slow runners, and can't get to the loot as fast as the rest when a store's window is first shattered. These slow ones wind up getting nothing but socks, shoe polish and leftovers like that.
Giving them free shoes and things will build their self esteem which will make them just a little less angry at the world.
Hey my parents came from Hungary in 53’ my mother never ever was sorry they came until Obama was elected. And it has nothing to do with him being Black, she says if they wanted communism they could have saved themselves the boat ride!
Sounds to me that a whole lot of so called Parents should be brought up on Child Abuse Charges.
I always thought that your Kids ate before you ate.
A lot of families can’t afford vacations, perhaps the schools should pay for an annual trip to Disneyworld for everybody (and kids in the Orlando area should get go to Hawaii).
... in a handbasket.
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