Free Republic

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, federal policymakers acted quickly and decisively to make school meals available to all children at no charge. This policy remained in effect for two and a half years. It was a game-changer. Across the country, school nutrition staff reported numerous benefits in the Food Research & Action Center’s (FRAC) Large School District Report, including removing the stigma from program participation and eliminating school meal debt to the benefit of both families and school districts. The policy also helped address household food insecurity, which rose significantly due to COVID-19 and allowed an additional...

Fifty-two percent of U.S. Catholic schools participate in the federal lunch program, according to the National Catholic Educational Association.The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reversed a policy that would have required Catholic schools that participate in a federal free lunch program to comply with the Biden administration’s LGBTQ mandates. Nevertheless, some Catholic schools, such as those of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, are choosing to drop out of the program. Earlier this year the Biden administration re-interpreted Title IX's federal ban on sex discrimination to include “sexual orientation or gender identity.” Religious freedom and free speech advocates warn that the...

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed a new state law Thursday that focuses on students' access to school meals, with provisions around free breakfast and lunch as well as unpaid meal debt. The new law also takes aim at a practice known as "lunch shaming," prohibiting schools from publicly identifying or taking punitive action against students who have unresolved debt for school meals. "The new law is both timely and critical because it boosts federal nutrition dollars to schools across Massachusetts, and keeps children out of what should be an 'adult only' conversation on school meal debt," said Patricia Baker, a...

In his book Was Jesus a Socialist? author Lawrence W. Reed writes, “Almost everybody wants to help those in need. The crucial question is how to help. Let’s not make the mistake of arguing that to use force, plunder, and dependency is somehow ‘the Christian thing to do.’” [Emphasis his]Today we see the party in power in Washington, D.C. spending recklessly, ostensibly to help those in need. But one suspects they’re really just trying to buy votes by giving away “free” money. They are racking up debts so high they threaten our nation’s future. As Senator Rand Paul, Republican from...

Way back in 1959 legendary science fiction author and political libertarian Robert Heinlein was quite clairvoyant in predicting the demise of our culture due to misguided progressive policies and beliefs. Much of Troopers’ “future history” is told via high school teacher and former infantryman Colonel Jean DuBois to protagonist Juan Rico (by the way, how is that for diversity — a novel from the 1950s in which the main character is Filipino and whose family speaks Tagalog?). In one scene, students in DuBois’ class are horrified that children couldn’t play in city parks in the 20th and early 21st centuries...

Direct deposits from the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden on Thursday will come as early as this weekend, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. With the signing of the stimulus bill, Biden commemorated the one-year anniversary of a U.S. lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic with a measure designed to bring relief to Americans and boost the economy. “People can expect to start seeing direct deposits hit their bank accounts as early as this weekend. This is, of course, just the first wave,” Psaki said. Payments to eligible Americans will continue throughout the...

The $1,400 stimulus included in President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package isn’t the only direct payment families could receive. The American Rescue Plan passed by the House includes changes to the child tax credit. The plan includes $3,000 per child ages 6 to 17 and $3,600 per child under age 6. The payments would last for a year, though Democrats are pushing to make them permanent.

Outgoing Washington Post economic columnist Steven Pearlstein spent his last column ripping apart the utopian borrow and spend fantasies of Democrats and the liberal media. Pearlstein’s column, headlined “In Democrats’ progressive paradise, borrowing is free, spending pays for itself, and interest rates never rise,” was incredibly blunt: “Welcome, fellow Americans, to the era of the free lunch.” As Pearlstein told it, “To hear it from liberal economists, progressive activists and Democratic politicians, there is no longer any limit to how much money government can borrow and spend and print.” Pearlstein said it was “disappointing” that Democrats embraced “intellectual dishonesty” and...

During National School Lunch Week, we celebrate our NationÂ’s commitment to providing nutritious food to millions of students, and we recognize the many dedicated food service professionals and administrators who help carry out this mission. In a typical year, the National School Lunch Program provides meals to nearly 30 million schoolchildren every day across the country. These meals enable students in need to eat nutritious meals, which helps them achieve academic success and reach their full potential. The National School Lunch Program succeeds because of the strong partnerships between the Federal Government and State governments, food service professionals, and local...

Dear XYZ Families: I wanted to share with you some good news about our school lunch program. The USDA extended a waiver that allows schools to serve free breakfast and lunch to ALL students, until December 31, 2020 or for as long as funding is available. We are thrilled with this news as it means that we will be able to provide all students of XYZ Public Schools with nutritious and nourishing food for free. What this means for your family and for XYZ Public Schools: Your children, ages 0-18 (or 0-21 if SSO), are eligible receive a healthy breakfast...

... 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...

By JEET HEER June 8, 2014 The science-fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein once described himself as “a preacher with no church.” More accurately, he was a preacher with too many churches. Rare among the many intellectual gurus whose fame mushroomed in the 1960s, Heinlein was a beacon for hippies and hawks, libertarians and authoritarians, and many other contending faiths—but rarely at the same time. While America became increasingly liberal, he became increasingly right wing, and it hobbled his once-formidable imagination. His career, as a new biography inadvertently proves, is a case study in the literary perils of political extremism. MOST...

Of the 5,052,222,946 school lunches served in Fiscal Year 2016, 73.3 percent of them — the highest percentage on record — were either free or reduced price meals, according to data posted on September 8, 2017 by the Agriculture Department’s Food and Nutrition Service. Free lunches comprised two-thirds (66.6 percent) of all lunches served in that school year; and reduced-price lunches comprised 6.7 percent. Students paid full price for the remaining 26.7 percent in Fiscal 2016, the latest year for which data is available. (FY 2016 covers the 12-month period beginning in Oct. 2015 and running through Sept. 2016. It...

The Vermont senator fielded questions on social justice from members of the the African-American and Muslim communities at a Town Hall in Milwaukee. Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders held a Town Hall meeting tonight in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The senator from Vermont was introduced by African-American Reverend Marcus Hart, and fielded questions from a diverse panel of members from representatives of local minority groups, including a Muslim-Americans. Sanders said he wasn't going to allow people to keep summoning "racial hatred," after he was asked a question from a Muslim-American woman, concerning what he would do to combat incitement from his Republican counterparts....

President Barack Obama will propose a $10 per barrel charge on oil to fund clean transportation projects as part of his final budget request next week, the White House said Thursday. The proposal would have difficulty clearing the Republican-controlled Congress. Oil companies would pay the fee, which would be gradually introduced over five years. The government would use the proceeds to fund high-speed railways, autonomous cars and other travel systems. "By placing a fee on oil, the President's plan creates a clear incentive for private sector innovation to reduce our reliance on oil and at the same time invests in...

A school cafeteria worker in Idaho says she was fired after giving a hungry middle school student a free lunch. Dalene Bowden, a server at Irving Middle School in Pocatello, told NBC affiliate KPVI in Idaho that she gave the hot meal to a 12-year-old girl with no lunch money whom said she was hungry on Dec. 15.

A southeastern Idaho cafeteria worker said she was fired for giving a student a free meal costing $1.70, but the school district offered her the job back after a national outcry. Dalene Bowden received a termination letter from the Pocatello School District last week after she gave a tray of food to a 12-year-old student who said she didn't have money for the meal.

Urging business leaders to lobby Republican lawmakers for higher spending, President Obama said Wednesday that partisan gridlock in Washington is a bigger threat to the U.S. than Chinese cyberattacks or Russian military aggression. “Our problem is not that China’s going to out-negotiate us, or that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is sort of out-strategizing us,” Mr. Obama said. “Has anybody taken a look at the Russian economy lately? That’s not our problem. Our problem’s us, typically. We engage in self-inflicted wounds, like this potential government shutdown. It’s unnecessary.” The president spoke to the Business Roundtable in Washington as the Oct. 1...

The National Taxpayers Union Foundation reports that Senator Ted Cruz (from Texas) has, during his time in the U.S. Senate, supported measures that would reduce government spending by $169.4 billion a year.Demian Brady, NTUF director of Research, is quoted by Breitbart as saying: Senator Cruz supported significant spending reductions like repeal of the Affordable Care Act and abolishing the IRS and income tax in favor of a sales tax. Combined with very minimal spending increases, these make for a legislative slate big on savings. And that’s not all. Cruz also wants to repeal ObamaCare which would reduce government spending by...

Much like any criminal organization, the Obama administration will punish anyone who dares tell the outside world just what they’re up to. They’ll take your job, your reputation, and — in this sickening case — they’ll even try to take your daughter. A Department of Homeland Security agent who blew the whistle on deliberately lax enforcement under a particular immigration program had just that happen to her. Now, she’s speaking out before Congress. Taylor Johnson, a senior special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that she faced massive retribution after...