5 ms·

A number of fair questions, I can only answer from personal experience. My dad being a bus driver+conference phone tech and my mom an office admin we qualified

A number of fair questions, I can only answer from personal experience. My dad being a bus driver+conference phone tech and my mom an office admin we qualified for lunch and other aids as long as I was in school. Many things were subsidized, but there were also things that weren't. It was hard to know when unless you always asked. For smaller items sometimes it wasn't worth the embarrassment of always walking up to your teacher or school admin to ask if there was a discount for me. They knew who I was and what I was asking for. Super nice about it, but it doesn't make it feel any less worse. I also had to sneak away from friends. I also didn't want them around while I asked. But you're right at a $400 required fee, usually there's a form of aid/discount. I'll give the writer a benefit of doubt. Maybe there wasn't aid available? Maybe there was and it simply wasn't enough. $400 => $100 can still be very stressful. Regardless, I thank my parents and grandparents, because being one of the lucky ones - I never went hungry.

rmk 5y ago
It is always embarrassing, even for a young child, to be asking for what he feels to be handouts. But, in your personal experience, was there enough assistance, and did it make a meaningful difference at the right time in your life? Was being better-informed about assistance the biggest challenge by far?
- irjustin 5y ago
  > was there enough assistance, Having read other stories of other children, yes I would say it was. As the pandemic really got going, shutting down schools was removing some kids only assured meals. > and did it make a meaningful difference at the right time in your life? mmmmm for me personally I want to say yes, but can't definitively say so because it wasn't profound enough for me to say "Ah yes my life changed" because of this. I can't tell what my life would have been like if my parents made more money during that same time period. > Was being better-informed about assistance the biggest challenge by far? As the parent, probably, I haven't asked. As the child, no, the hardest challenge was asking for it and being told by my parents to go ask. I'd bring home a paper that says you need $50 for this field trip, parents would send me to the office to ask. I'd fight/beg not to. Sometimes I actually got my way, most of time I didn't. Today, I know/can-imagine what kind of stress that particular fight puts on parents and I thank them so much for raising me.

rmk 5y ago

It is always embarrassing, even for a young child, to be asking for what he feels to be handouts. But, in your personal experience, was there enough assistance, and did it make a meaningful difference at the right time in your life? Was being better-informed about assistance the biggest challenge by far?

irjustin 5y ago
> was there enough assistance, Having read other stories of other children, yes I would say it was. As the pandemic really got going, shutting down schools was removing some kids only assured meals. > and did it make a meaningful difference at the right time in your life? mmmmm for me personally I want to say yes, but can't definitively say so because it wasn't profound enough for me to say "Ah yes my life changed" because of this. I can't tell what my life would have been like if my parents made more money during that same time period. > Was being better-informed about assistance the biggest challenge by far? As the parent, probably, I haven't asked. As the child, no, the hardest challenge was asking for it and being told by my parents to go ask. I'd bring home a paper that says you need $50 for this field trip, parents would send me to the office to ask. I'd fight/beg not to. Sometimes I actually got my way, most of time I didn't. Today, I know/can-imagine what kind of stress that particular fight puts on parents and I thank them so much for raising me.