5 ms·
Just because the school provides free lunch to everyone does not mean the family cannot afford lunch. At some point it becomes cheaper to just give everyone lun
by skywhopper 11y ago
Just because the school provides free lunch to everyone does not mean the family cannot afford lunch. At some point it becomes cheaper to just give everyone lunch than to deal with the hassle of deciding which kid owes $1.55 and which doesn't. In fact, providing free lunch to all children in public school is an extremely cheap way of marginally reducing kids' awareness of who's poor and who isn't.
- ams6110 11y agoVery marginal if at at all. Believe me especially by middle school and older, everyone knows who is poor, who is rich, who is a slut, who is religious, who is a jock, etc. And there are other ways, e.g. everyone has a swipe card or number code to "pay" for their lunch and you never know who's on the free lunch program or not. I've never heard of a school giving free lunch by default, though. Maybe in areas where 99% of the kids would qualify anyway?
- nmrm2 11y ago> Maybe in areas where 99% of the kids would qualify anyway? Yes. Which there are a lot of, because poverty is so extremely concentrated.
- nsgi 11y agoEven if it doesn't increase kids' knowledge, it still draws attention to it (both to peers and the kid themself) and provides an opportunity for bullying.
- skywhopper 11y agoIt's a pretty recent program, and it's only available if the school has over 40% eligibility, but it exists, and it's great: http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/cn/CEPfactsheet.pdf http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/cn/CEPfactsheet....