Posted on 02/10/2020 7:17:06 AM PST by karpov
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By my calculation, roughly 20 million eligible children, mostly from middle- and upper-middle-class families, continue to opt out of the national program by bringing lunch or by buying special à la carte food items not covered by the program.
As an individual family decision, packing lunches might seem like the best option, especially for children with special dietary needs. But when millions of families do so, their actions reduce the political will and financial resources necessary to make public school lunches better for everyone.
The Trump administration isn’t much help. According to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, providing schools with the flexibility to plan menus that appeal to students’ taste preferences is a way to attract more paying customers to the federal program and reduce food waste. Mr. Purdue has pursued this strategy for making school lunch “great again.”
In practice, this has meant enacting policies that loosen restrictions on the amount of sodium, flavored milk and refined grains that can be served in school meals. The department’s own data shows that participation in the national lunch program is higher in cafeterias that serve healthier meals, yet the administration’s latest proposal, released last month, would allow schools to serve more french fries and fewer green vegetables.
Despite these setbacks, in recent years, community activists have won universal free school meals in many of the nation’s poorest schools and in some large districts like Boston and New York City public schools. Many more districts have started robust farm-to-school programs that support local food and farm economies. And Democrats are talking about universal free lunch on the campaign trail.
There are limits, however, to what even the most progressive school food service programs can achieve when roughly 40 percent of eligible students continue to opt out of the national program.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Liberals are so incompetent and stupid they grapple with making lunch for kids - something that went without a hitch for decades and decades.
They use any excuse to rationalize gov't control.
Onemore more attempt of socialism trying to hide their taxing policies.
No problemo. Tommy styro and his other half will ensure they get fresh veggies. Or something.
It is disappointing that only 40% opt out. The opt out number should be higher than 90%.
The meals they have in hospitals are better than the swill they serve in public schools. Sure, they have salad bars and fruit cups but the kids ignore them and go for the ever present pizza and mac & cheese.
We pack lunch for our children because we are their parents. And because we want to feed them healthy foods we know they will eat. Unlike the millions of supposedly healthy “free” Michelle Obama lunches that get thrown out. ( she had a good idea about making government K- ration lunches healthier but government cannot possibly know what YOUR children will and won’t eat)
What a bizarre take on the subject!
As an individual family decision, packing lunches might seem like the best option, especially for children with special dietary needs. But when millions of families do so, their actions reduce the political will and financial resources necessary to make public school lunches better for everyone.
Saw off!
All for the ‘greater good’.
Socialism on full display!
In the county where I used to live, the public schools served lunch. It was assumed that, because many students were People of Color and in the lower economic bracket, that the parents were incapable of providing lunch for their children. This, of course, is an assumption based upon the racism of lowered expectations, and as a result, many children were partaking of the free lunch AND bringing in food.
Then the “Powers That Be” mused upon the idea that children were not eating breakfast at home (again due to racism) and so they initiated a free breakfast program at the start of the day. Children being what they are, they gobbled up the school breakfast even though they had already eaten at home.
Then the Social Engineers, thinking that the only place these poor children could be fed three squares a day, initiated an after-school dinner program, which, of course, was free, and enjoyed by the children before they went home for more supper.
The following year the School Department had a huge public meeting concerning “The Childhood Obesity Crisis”.
True Story.
Plus, we do t want government welfare meals !!! Return our tax money- lower the tax rates and give food only only only to the genuinely needy only - about one twentieth of all the meals that are bri g fished out they serve govt meals to kids living in four million dollar houses, for Heaven’s sakes!!
This is hysterical.
This is the Left’s response to failure. They want to shame you into sacrificing your child’s well being and your concern over his/her welfare. You need to work towards state control whether it’s good for your family or not.
Their 1st response is not to improve the offerings so that your kids will want to eat lunch from school and that you as a parent think that will be an appealing, nutritious option. It’s not to concentrate on the children that need lunch support and redeploy resources where they are needed. It’s to bully you into ceding control to the bureaucrats so that they can wield their power as they see fit.
One of the mental images I have enjoyed recently is President Trump as Toto, tearing down the curtain so that the petty tyrants hidden behind the curtain are in plain view so that all can know them and act accordingly. How they writhe when exposed to the light!
...when millions of families do so, their actions reduce the political will and financial resources necessary to make public school lunches better for everyone.
Uh, no, quite the opposite.
Partisan Media Shills update.
It is bizarre but you have to understand the whiny liberal mindset of perpetual victimology.
I pack my kids lunches because I am told the lunch provided at school is disgusting.
Sadly, this is why I feel Fed.gov needs bankruptcy and America needs a huge financial reset. There is no way to fix it otherwise.
NYT instead of the Onion? I initially thought so.
My son felt the same way about school lunch. I packed his lunch everyday, usually a homemade sandwich or homemade soup in a thermos. I always included fruit or carrot sticks and cookies. The boy ate well.
We should, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, be paying for the school lunches (plus breakfasts, in many cases, and “to-go” snacks for others)of any but the NEEDIEST students. And for those students, their family’s food stamp allotment should be reduced accordingly, to reflect that the kids are already getting 2-3 free meals on most weekdays.
JMHO
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