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One thing you forgot to consider is why the school lunch program is in place at all. It's for those kids from poorer backgrounds who might not receive a meal th

One thing you forgot to consider is why the school lunch program is in place at all. It's for those kids from poorer backgrounds who might not receive a meal that day if it wasn't for this program.

burfog 9y ago
What about days without school? It sounds like the poor kids just go hungry. Summer vacation means no food. What about the kids from families with higher standards? They are being forced to go hungry, eat garbage served by the school, or eat a lunch that is neither refrigerated nor heated. School lunch is a terrible way to feed the poor. If we're going to do that, provide old-style food stamps or just have the postal service drop off food. Do it for everybody who doesn't opt out.
- actualproblem 9y ago
  > What about days without school? It sounds like the poor kids just go hungry. Summer vacation means no food. Yeah, this is actually a problem. Which is why the Summer Food Service Program exists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Food_Service_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Food_Service_Program Unfortunately, kids living in places with a local government unwilling to jump to offer this program (which is reimbursed by the federal government) don't have the opportunity. There are a lot of places in America where local government is incompetent and/or sadistic. (See also: Medicaid expansion.) > What about the kids from families with higher standards? They are being forced to go hungry, eat garbage served by the school, or eat a lunch that is neither refrigerated nor heated. Oh noes! Unrefrigerated, unheated lunches! How can a human possibly survive?! Tip: if you need your lunch at a thermal gradient to the ambient, try an icepack and insulated bag and/or a thermos. > School lunch is a terrible way to feed the poor. If we're going to do that, provide old-style food stamps or just have the postal service drop off food. Do it for everybody who doesn't opt out. There are lots of problems with school lunches. Even as a grade school kid in the 80's, I knew there was something deeply wrong with being served lunch from a steam tray in front of a kitchen that never appeared to be actually used - my school building dated from a time when lunch was actually prepared on site from scratch, but by the time i was in school almost everything was coming from a box out of the deep freeze. However, interrupt the current program without replacement nutrition in place and you're going to disrupt the lives and educations of millions. Hungry kids don't learn well (or behave in a way conducive to others around them learning.) PS - I now live in Holland and my kids' school serves no lunch. They have to bring their own - unrefrigerated, un-heated. They manage. ( look wistfully at the school lunches served in France, and think the system here says a lot about Dutch food culture or lack thereof.) But poverty here is nothing like what I left behind in the US.
  - emj 9y ago
    Interesting the same has been said about Norwegian food culture, where the kids and parents bring basically a sandwich for lunch. The one I heard was that since the kids will only get the food their parents prepare they are less likely to try new things as adults and since there is a culture of not eating prepared meals at work as adults either I guess the problem continues. Food culture is hard to measure, school lunches are not, I guess there are other objective measures one could use.
    - burfog 9y ago
      Problem? It's not a problem aside from possibly spoiled food and the misery of cold food. Prepared food is grey mystery slop make from corn and soy. It sounds like Norwegian kids learn how to prepare their own food, a useful skill. They also get to have something of their choice. I did that in the USA. I normally took a drink, fruit, some nuts or chocolate, and two large meat sandwiches. Converting for you metric people... each sandwich might contain a slice of frozen eye-of-round (lean beef) about 8 mm thick and 10 cm diameter, in something like a hamburger bun. A larger version would have each sandwich being a small loaf of bread (a baguette?) about 25 cm by 8 cm, with turkey perhaps 6 mm thick. I'm sure this blows past the Calorie limits we now have in the USA, but I needed it.
- emj 9y ago
  School lunch works, but yes when there is no school (or other types of daycare) it does get very hard to get food for the whole family. So it is not the solution to poverty but it does give kids a greater chance at learning wether they are poor or rich.

One thing you forgot to consider is why the school lunch program is in place at all. It's for those kids from poorer backgrounds who might not receive a meal that day if it wasn't for this program.

burfog 9y ago

What about days without school? It sounds like the poor kids just go hungry. Summer vacation means no food. What about the kids from families with higher standards? They are being forced to go hungry, eat garbage served by the school, or eat a lunch that is neither refrigerated nor heated. School lunch is a terrible way to feed the poor. If we're going to do that, provide old-style food stamps or just have the postal service drop off food. Do it for everybody who doesn't opt out.

actualproblem 9y ago
> What about days without school? It sounds like the poor kids just go hungry. Summer vacation means no food. Yeah, this is actually a problem. Which is why the Summer Food Service Program exists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Food_Service_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_Food_Service_Program Unfortunately, kids living in places with a local government unwilling to jump to offer this program (which is reimbursed by the federal government) don't have the opportunity. There are a lot of places in America where local government is incompetent and/or sadistic. (See also: Medicaid expansion.) > What about the kids from families with higher standards? They are being forced to go hungry, eat garbage served by the school, or eat a lunch that is neither refrigerated nor heated. Oh noes! Unrefrigerated, unheated lunches! How can a human possibly survive?! Tip: if you need your lunch at a thermal gradient to the ambient, try an icepack and insulated bag and/or a thermos. > School lunch is a terrible way to feed the poor. If we're going to do that, provide old-style food stamps or just have the postal service drop off food. Do it for everybody who doesn't opt out. There are lots of problems with school lunches. Even as a grade school kid in the 80's, I knew there was something deeply wrong with being served lunch from a steam tray in front of a kitchen that never appeared to be actually used - my school building dated from a time when lunch was actually prepared on site from scratch, but by the time i was in school almost everything was coming from a box out of the deep freeze. However, interrupt the current program without replacement nutrition in place and you're going to disrupt the lives and educations of millions. Hungry kids don't learn well (or behave in a way conducive to others around them learning.) PS - I now live in Holland and my kids' school serves no lunch. They have to bring their own - unrefrigerated, un-heated. They manage. ( look wistfully at the school lunches served in France, and think the system here says a lot about Dutch food culture or lack thereof.) But poverty here is nothing like what I left behind in the US.
- emj 9y ago
  Interesting the same has been said about Norwegian food culture, where the kids and parents bring basically a sandwich for lunch. The one I heard was that since the kids will only get the food their parents prepare they are less likely to try new things as adults and since there is a culture of not eating prepared meals at work as adults either I guess the problem continues. Food culture is hard to measure, school lunches are not, I guess there are other objective measures one could use.
  - burfog 9y ago
    Problem? It's not a problem aside from possibly spoiled food and the misery of cold food. Prepared food is grey mystery slop make from corn and soy. It sounds like Norwegian kids learn how to prepare their own food, a useful skill. They also get to have something of their choice. I did that in the USA. I normally took a drink, fruit, some nuts or chocolate, and two large meat sandwiches. Converting for you metric people... each sandwich might contain a slice of frozen eye-of-round (lean beef) about 8 mm thick and 10 cm diameter, in something like a hamburger bun. A larger version would have each sandwich being a small loaf of bread (a baguette?) about 25 cm by 8 cm, with turkey perhaps 6 mm thick. I'm sure this blows past the Calorie limits we now have in the USA, but I needed it.
emj 9y ago
School lunch works, but yes when there is no school (or other types of daycare) it does get very hard to get food for the whole family. So it is not the solution to poverty but it does give kids a greater chance at learning wether they are poor or rich.