Posted on 11/30/2008 1:14:55 PM PST by fightinJAG
Across South Hampton Roads, thousands more families have signed up for subsid ized school lunches for their children.
"It'd be safe to say that has somethi ng to do with the economy," said Jay Ratliff, director of food services for the Virginia Beach school system, which is serving 2,000 more free or reduced-price lunches each weekday than it served last year.
In the five cities, the percentage of students getting free or subsidized lunches - generally for 40 cents or less - has risen for two years, with the largest increases this fall.
The need extends beyond the school doors.
(Excerpt) Read more at hamptonroads.com ...
Okay, this is big-time Obama country. So they should be getting free “everything” pretty soon, eh?
What, no school breakfast program?
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. All you have to do for free lunch is give up your liberty. That same liberty that was paid for in patriot blood.
Why don’t we just feed all the children free lunches and get it over with. Sure didn’t have free anything when I was a kid. It’s up to the parents to feed their own children. My folks sure as hell did. If it’s free, they won’t work for it.
It has become kind of fashionable in our little town to let the government pay for your kids breakfasts and lunches no matter how much money you earn.
My daughter tells me that more than half the bus gets off in the morning early to eat free breakfast at school, and these kids don’t come from the other side of the tracks either.
The easier you make it the more it will be abused, and believe me brother it is being abused big time.
I know the system is being abused, but can't for the life of me figure out how it is being done. Most people I know have to jump through all kinds of hoops to get any kind of assistance, of course they are also honest, law-abiding citizens that just need a temporary bit of assistance.
when we lived in that area, quite a few years back, there was a breakfast program and yes, it included those who were eligible for free/reduced meals.
seems this has even spread up to our area too...
http://www.fccps.k12.va.us/news/item/081001_01.htm
School Board Approves Free Meals for Qualifying Students
POSTED: 10:30 a.m. EDT, October 1, 2008
By: FCCPS Communications
The Falls Church City School Board recognizes that current economic difficulties may lead to financial hardships for some families. In an effort to provide direct assistance to families, the school board voted at its last meeting to subsidize reduced-price student meals for students who meet federal family income guidelines. Beginning today, and for the rest of this school year, any FCCPS family that qualifies for reduced-price student meals will be provided those meals at no charge.
“The research is clear that healthful, nutritious meals are a fundamental component of student wellness, learning, and success,” school board member Joan Wodiska said. “Our vote to subsidize meals for families that meet federal income guidelines was the right thing to do for our students, and we strongly encourage every eligible family to apply for the school meals program.”
Students who qualify will receive electronic meal cards that are identical to those given to students who are not eligible for free meals. The debit system is computerized, allowing all payment and free meal information to be kept confidential.
Families may apply for assistance at any time throughout the school year.
When my daughter was in elementary school, I used the phrase “There’s no such thing as a free lunch” in conversation. She looked at me blankly and said, “Yes there is. Lots of kids in my class get them! And breakfast, too!”
Thus began our discourse on socialism. lol
Around here one of the big things is to be sure not to marry, but just shack up together while keeping his or her place of official residence at their parents house.
Looks REAL good on the tax returns when they ask for proof of destitution, frees up a lot of cash for non-essentials like beer and cigarettes, ATV’s, and a million other things that most would never be able to have and still support a family.
People of our (assuming) generation don’t even plan or think like young couples now, they have it down to a science.
WIC, food stamps, school lunches, state paid health care for minors, they know exactly how to milk it all by the time they are in their late teens.
“Easy to be abused” doesn’t touch it. It is DESIGNED to be abused.
I first ran into this in the 80s. Had two kids in a fairly prosperous rural district. Start of the year, I had completed a survey, turns out I qualified (barely) at 200% of poverty for reduced price lunches. Thanks, but no thanks says I. One kid packed his own lunch, the girl, I could afford.
The district stayed on my case to accept for both kids, finally stirred my interest to look into it. Turns out, free/reduced price lunch is a “linch-pin” program. All sorts of other federal grants use the percentage of lunch/breakfast enrollees as a district’s qualifying standard for everything from special ed to God-knows-what. The district honchos didn’t give a rat’s if my kids actually ate the cafeteria garbage or catered Beluga caviar, the district wanted those stats as “poverty” cases.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Free Lunch: Title I’s formula for determining aid — and its recipe for fraud.
Individual schools receive Title I funding based on the percentage of students that are eligible for the federally subsidized free-lunch program. Though the lunch program is designed to provide food to low-income students who might otherwise go hungry, its guidelines do not require schools to verify the parental income of students who enroll. The process to qualify for a free lunch comes down to parents self-reporting their income on a form that is turned in to their local school. Federal free-lunch program administrators argue that the program has little potential for abuse because “the worst that happens is a kid gets a free lunch.”
Federal free-lunch data, however, are used as one of the main poverty indicators for school districts and are linked to many other local, state, and federal funding streams. So any fraud in the free-lunch program is quickly multiplied. And rest assured that school districts recognize the program’s multiplier effect and work hard to sign up students.
******
The School Lunch Lobby: A Charmed Federal Food Program that No Longer Just Feeds the Hungry
The number of free and reduced-price lunches schools serve dictates how much extra federal money for poor students they receive; some districts get millions in poverty funding each year. The schools can use the money for academics.
Most districts seek out students who might be eligible. Many send home the school lunch application with all students at the beginning of the year.
Some districts have experimented with the automatic enrollment process and have found eligible students.
Exactly - My mom worked in the schools for years, it all came down to revenue in the end.
I understand what you are saying, however my point is that these programs were instituted to give a bit of temporary assistance to otherwise productive, law-abiding citizens and they are the ones that are forced to jump through all kinds of hoops to get even crumbs.
I know this because I and my husband are of those normally productive, law abiding citizens who have needed a hand. Social Services expects more income info than does the IRS — if you can believe that.
In FY 2006, federal spending totaled $7.4 billion for the National School Lunch Program. This federal support comes in the form of a cash reimbursement for each meal served. The 2008-09 school year basic federal reimbursement rates are:
Free Lunches $2.57
Reduced Price Lunches $2.17
Paid Lunches $0.24
Its guidelines do not require schools to verify the parental income of students who enroll. The process to qualify for a free lunch comes down to parents self-reporting their income on a form that is turned in to their local school. Federal free-lunch program administrators argue that the program has little potential for abuse because “the worst that happens is a kid gets a free lunch.”
This federal support comes in the form of a cash reimbursement for each meal served. The 2008-09 school year basic federal reimbursement rates are:
Free Lunches $2.57
Reduced Price Lunches $2.17
Paid Lunches $0.24
Let me tell you a little story: About fifteen years ago on a fine summer morning I happened to turn the local tv news while dressing for work. I stopped, flabbergasted, when the cutie newsie reported breathlessly there would be “free breakfast and lunch served at several inner city schools†and “no card or payment of any kind would be required†and children “up to age 18 could eat freeâ€. And her last breathless words were, “It’s all free, it doesn’t cost anything!†These are the things that made me realize I was a conservative, and a pretty mad one at that.
In our school system, all you have to do is show ONE pay stub that will put you below the allowed income. Some people use a pay stub with unpaid vacation days, unpaid sick days, etc. You’re supposed to notify the school corporation if your income changes from that pay stub, but no one ever checks up on it.
Kind of like our “21st Century Scholars” program. If you meet the income requirement at ANY time during your child’s middle school years, your child/children are guaranteed a free ride to any college in the state. It doesn’t matter what your income is at the time your child is ready to attend college, as long as you met the requirement in middle school. Kids whose parents are pulling in 100+k/year are attending college for free.
It’s complete and utter bullcrap. I apologized to the boy for his “no-good” father who had the gall to work his butt off our entire marriage to keep us above the poverty level. ;)
These kind of welfare programs enourage people to be non-productive and look to others (the government) for handouts. End these programs and the parents will go to work to pay for their rugrats lunches, or they’ll go hungry or starve. Either way, they will no longer be a burden on the rest of society.
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