Posted on 02/08/2011 9:04:42 AM PST by reaganaut1
Of the 2,200 students at Intermediate School 61 in Corona, Queens, 86 percent receive free cafeteria lunches. Some others pay a reduced price, and some are supposed to pay full price.
But not all of their parents pay what they are supposed to, and recently, the school’s principal, Joseph Lisa, has been spending a lot of time trying to collect money from them.
He has cornered them in the hallways. He has offered them gentle reminders after school meetings. He has called them and sent them letters suggesting payment plans for debts that might amount to $20 or $30.
“We give them little pieces of paper saying, ‘This week you owe $5, $3, 50 cents,’ but as soon as we collect it from one parent, there’s another who’s falling behind,” Mr. Lisa said.
The city used to pick up the unpaid tabs. Since 2004, it has absorbed at least $42 million in unpaid lunch fees.
But that is a luxury it can no longer afford, according to the Department of Education, which has weathered several rounds of budget cuts, with more still to come. So it has been telling principals to collect overdue lunch money or risk having it docked from their school budgets.
Of the city’s 1,600 schools, 1,043 owe a collective $2.5 million to the Education Department for meals served in the first three months of this school year. That puts them on track to be $8 million behind by the end of the school year.
New York City’s lunch money problem is costly and complicated, but it is not unique. The economic downturn has school administrators and legislators all over the country scratching for savings even as more parents are falling behind in lunch fees.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“There’s no such thing as a ‘free lunch’”.
This actually works in the real world. They should try it.
The cruel and heartless government starving poor children.
Let the parents buy a linch ticket first...duh...
At my children’s school we have to pre-pay into a fund when it gets below a level I get an email to add to it. If there is no money in the account, no lunch.
an he got a stash!
If we wanted a "hot lunch", we'd put our sandwiches on the windowsill if it was a sunny day.
can’t make peanut butter and jelly and bring it to school anymore.
You’d think they would get this!
Yup. The idea that some kids “can’t afford” lunch is a complete joke. Inability to pay for your child’s lunch is a choice.
I worked for five years as a lunchroom lady in my kids’ elementary school.
The abuse of the free and reduced lunch program is rampant.
The kids whose parents were honest and didn’t try to game the system did sometimes have debt or came without money.
We were allowed to let them have lunch up to 5 times without payment. After that we were not allowed to give them a lunch.
When they came through the line, we would have to remind them that they owed money and then take the food from them and send them on their way.
This was embarrassing for these kids and they became almost afraid to come through the line in case they owed and couldn’t get food.
The school had no problem with this humiliation of these poor kids.
But, one could be reprimanded or even fired if one was caught revealing which kids had free or reduced lunches!
We must not humiliate the little darlings by telling their peers that they were too poor to buy their own food.
How much can it cost to make a big pot of gruel for the kids whose parents won’t pay?
The school subsidized breakfasts and lunches are a scam. In our school district 80% receive subsidized meals. On TV they crow about the number of lunches provided. In the summer they open the schools ... you guessed it ... free meals for all!! Oh, by the way, you really don’t have to show any proof of need ... just show up and claim your freebees!!
when i was in grammar school, back in the 70s, every now and then a kid would not have a lunch, or would not have his lunch money or ticket... that kid would be given a bun/roll and a milk... it did not happen often... once i had my little purse stolen--so i had no lunch money... my teacher took me to the teachers' lounge and gave me some lunch from her stash--cheese, crackers and veggies... i will never forget that!
Here they get free PB&J for about a week or so if they can’t pay the lunch fees. After that, cut off.
Pay? For Food? I have a right to eat and the government should provide!
I hear they have some leftover brats at the White House...
I wonder how those Cheeeldren will handle credit when they grow older....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.