More students eating breakfast, lunch thanks to free-meals-for-all program

Gainesville Sun ^ | September 29, 2014 | By Erin Jester

[Oldeconomybuyer]

On Wednesday, Rose Gordon and her staff served 308 school lunches to all 308 students who came to school at Lake Forest Elementary.

Gordon, the food service manager, said she was shocked when she saw the numbers later. Most days, she said, “I maybe miss two or three.”

What Gordon saw last week can be attributed, at least in part, to Lake Forest’s membership in a federally funded program that provides free breakfast and lunch to all students at 24 local schools, regardless of ability to pay.

In the past, free and reduced-price lunch was dictated by family income.

This program, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, targets the highest-need communities in school districts.

District administrators say they already have noticed significant increases in students eating school lunch at each of the 24 sites.

The number of free breakfasts and lunches being served each day across all 24 CEP schools is up 13 percent, food service specialist Caron Rowe said.

That amounts to an additional 1,216 meals a day over what schools were serving last year, she said.

Metcalfe Elementary’s enrollment increased by 166 students this year, but the number of students being fed at school each day jumped by 374.

At Mebane Middle, Rowe said, all but about five students a day go through the lunch line.

“We’ve been very, very pleased with the numbers so far,” she said.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[rktman]

Yup. “Free”. Nobody gets a bill. :>}

[Jack Hammer]

SO delighted they’re enjoying themselves.

Now... why am I paying for it?

[Drango]

FREE!!!!!

[goodnesswins]

More like...more parents behaving badly

[henkster]

And once the government hands out the “freebie,” the recipients will never, ever vote for anyone who will take it away. And in the process, they become slaves. No, those meals aren’t free. The government expects in return perpetual votes and dependency, while the government grows ever more controlling and intrusive into their lives.

A pretty cheap way to sell out their freedom.

[mrsmel]

How is it that we supposedly have a problem with kids starving, when we also have a childhood obesity problem?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Because you are stupid enough to be a wagon puller and not a wagon rider. /sarc

[MrB]

“I’m a good person because I believe that all hungry children should be fed for free.”

And that’s the extent of the intellectual examination of this issue.

[GizzyGirl]

Today I dropped my grandbabies off at school because mommy and daddy are away and I'm helping out. They were up early, had breakfast with me, left the house with fresh fruit and a lunchbox with food we know they love and will gladly eat, with little to no waste. Just as my daughter did her whole childhood... I just don't get it... and I guess I never will. I pray my grandbabies grow up and have breakfast at home and a lunch they enjoy without depending on taxpayers to feed them. It's hard work, which is why parents dump them off on someone else... it's not the money, but so many simply make no effort. The more that's “free” the less parents do... so depressing.

[mrsmel]

They’re not “free” to the suckers-I mean taxpayers-who have to pay for them either. But that’s never a consideration. I wish commie leftists had to dig into their own pockets to pay for all the “entitlements” they think people are entitled to, instead of being able to force the rest of us (many of whom are barely meeting their own costs of living in this wonderful Obozo economy) to pay for them.

[MrB]

Because we haven’t had the guts to say “no” and face those consequences.

[duckbutt]

I came from poor family. But I always carried lunch to school. Usually a baloney sandwich, an apple, maybe a homemade treat.
Now...we have lots of older and younger freepers here. Just an informal poll: Before the government started offering “free” and “reduced cost” lunches and breakfasts, if you came from a poor family, did you go without when you went to school? Or.....did your parents send you with a lunch? I'm of the assumption that parents decades ago took more responsibility for their kid's health and welfare that those that claim to be parents today.

[GizzyGirl]

Today I dropped my grandbabies off at school because mommy and daddy are away and I'm helping out. They were up early, had breakfast with me, left the house with fresh fruit and a lunchbox with food we know they love and will gladly eat, with little to no waste. Just as my daughter did her whole childhood... I just don't get it... and I guess I never will. I pray my grandbabies grow up and have breakfast at home and a lunch they enjoy without depending on taxpayers to feed them. It's hard work, which is why parents dump them off on someone else... it's not the money, but so many simply make no effort. The more that's “free” the less parents do... so depressing. My daughter and her husband make lunches every night, everything organized and ready to go. I was just following their direction, much the same as how they both grew up.

[GizzyGirl]

I came from modest means, raised my kids with modest means, and now they are raising their with modest means. And there is NO free lunch... all generations of our family made and continue to make lunches, and we had breakfast together before we all piled out the door. When I was older we were “allowed” to buy lunch on pizza Fridays, which we loved. I'm sure Moochellle has made those illegal by now.

[mrsmel]

My mother made 10 brown-bag lunches every school day for me and my siblings, even when we went to Catholic school. My dad would have never have allowed us to eat “free” lunches, and I thank him for instilling that value in us all.

[grobdriver]

More students eating breakfast, lunch thanks to free-meals-for-all program stealing from the American tax payer.

[Vaduz]

Ain’t socialism grand.

[SpaceBar]

More pigeons eating bird seed due to all the bird seed we’ve scattered around.

Exact same retarded logic.

[Slyfox]

When I was in school my parents would have qualified for free food at school, if they had it back then.

I didn't eat breakfast very often, and why? Because I was too dang lazy to fix it before I left for school.