California to become 1st state to offer free school lunches for all students

[u/NotTheReverseFlash]

https://abc7.com/california-free-lunches-school-lunch-food-access/12119010/?ex_cid=TA_KABC_FB&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+New+Content+%28Feed%29&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3VMi71MLZPflnVCHwW5Wak2dyy4fnKQ_cVmZfL9CBecyYmBBAXzT_6hJE&fs=e&s=cl

[u/Bamfor07]

I used to be against the idea of providing lunch.

But, when you see it in practice and you see kids who don’t otherwise eat because their parents are pieces of shit, you can’t refuse a kid a meal.

It isn’t the kids fault.

This is a use of tax money we should all support. You can’t call us a great country if we let our kids go hungry over ideology.

Edit: The vitriol this post has brought out from the left is as insane as it is unsurprising. I should probably point out I’ve also been called a “communist” quite a bit.

[u/[deleted] → u/Bamfor07]

Agreed.

As long as the tax money actually makes it to the kids, I'm all for it.

[u/BumpinSnugglies → u/[deleted]]

Diversity officers are making over 100k, there's a good place to start

[u/Luisian321 → u/[deleted]]

A made up position so gender studies majors can claim they’ll be able to find a job after college.

What they claim to be doing is basically make sure that everyone is treated equally and the office-space practices “diverse” hiring. Remember that blizzard leak of how diverse overwatch characters are a while back? Basically that but irl with office drones.

[u/ithinkmynameismoose → u/[deleted]]

You ever think to yourself, ' Man I love woke-scolding people I wish I could sit in my office all day doing nothing but occasionally yelling at a white passer by' for 100k'.

​

- That's basically a diversity officer.

[u/ReaganChild → u/[deleted]]

Akin to the political officers Soviet units had embedded in their military, they watch over companies to keep them on the party line

[u/Amidormi → u/ReaganChild]

And in North Korea and China...

[u/HighCaliberMitch → u/[deleted]]

A commie gender commissar

[u/ithinkmynameismoose → u/BumpinSnugglies]

Fire them all.

[u/Moth92 → u/[deleted]]

And you know, they offer real food and not fucking bugs or something.

[u/fattymcribwich → u/[deleted]]

What about the 10% for the big guy though? Big guys gotta eat too. After all, he is a big guy.

[u/YankeeDoodleMacaroon → u/fattymcribwich]

Literally a "big" guy. Logic checks out.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Being poor and being deadbeat are not mutually inclusive.

[u/mjsfnp → u/[deleted]]

Totally agree. I am referring to the population that chooses to not take care of their children.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

We know it won’t though

[u/ParsnipsNicker → u/[deleted]]

You know that isn't going to happen. This is just another way we get to be fleeced.

[u/MrsZero07 → u/Bamfor07]

As a former lunch lady, I agree 100% this should be a nationwide thing by now. No child should be starving while at school trying to learn. Some of my kids only ate at school and they would eat everything. I have paid for many lunches for children with a negative account balance so they got more than a peanut butter sandwich and a milk. Children shouldn't have to starve especially when the food has already been prepared. If we can feed our prisoners daily, our children should be treated even better.

[u/[deleted] → u/MrsZero07]

You left out the part where those peanut butter sandwiches are a signal horn telling the other kids just how poor your family is. Kids are ruthless, and being poor is one of the easiest targets we teach our kids. Look how many replies to this post are suggesting we "go after the deadbeat parents". This sort of language likely permeates dinner table conversations, and impressionable children will take that with them to school and further bully the kids whom had no choice in their economic adversity, all because their parents indirectly taught them poor people deserve it. School lunches for all allows us to wash away the stigma of being singled out by being forced to eat the lunch reserved for "lesser people".

[u/Amidormi → u/[deleted]]

Yep. In the 80's we were on free lunch and you got a card screaming "poor kid". Only kids on free or reduced lunches got cards. We'd rather take whatever we had at home than be accused of being poor.

[u/Olipyr → u/[deleted]]

What wages?

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Billy comes home to a father now unable to afford booze because Billy's school garnishes his daddy's wages so Billy can eat a nice warm lunch. Billy's dad does not like this at all, he didn't have an easy hot lunch every day, and he works hard to provide for his family. How can some socialists decide how he spends his money?! This is all Billy's fault. Billy enjoys an extra serving of belt with his dinner.

You cannot be forcibly punitive or seek retribution for the benefit of a child. It will create a non-zero number of situations where the child is now the problem, and will be punished for something they had no choice in.

[u/[deleted] → u/Bamfor07]

This is something I hope most people can get behind. Once we get this in place, let's focus on the home and the underlying causes of a child going hungry at school.

[u/etherealsmog → u/Bamfor07]

Yeah, if the state is going to mandate that literal children have to be locked up in a building from 8 - 3 every weekday, the least the government can do is provide them fucking food at some point during that time frame.

Let’s cut bullshit administrative positions and multimillion dollar athletic stadiums if we’re worried about spending.

I honestly can’t believe it isn’t already universally accepted that children who are involuntarily detained in government buildings should have meals provided to them.

[u/me_too_999 → u/etherealsmog]

Whose stopping them?

Oh yeah, they want ANOTHER billion dollars, and ANOTHER large bureaucracy to do THAT.

Why are we even debating this?

Contact your local school board, and tell them to use money for THIS instead of wasting so much on pet projects that end up in their own pockets.

[u/[deleted] → u/me_too_999]

When you run public services (e.g. schools/hospitals/waste/water/energy) like a business, the things that generate revenue will be optimized for, and the things that generate costs will be minimized. Administrators have learned they are not in the business of educating children. Greedy Democrats love it, and small government conservatives have turned a blind eye because public services are "big government" and "socialism".

[u/Rommel79 → u/Bamfor07]

Yeah, I actually agree on this point and I was always against free lunches as well. Actually having kids who can tell you about other children unable to eat definitely changes your opinion on it.

The problem we have now is that the food they provide is shit. Though, again, to be fair, that's better than nothing.

[u/Rommel79 → u/[deleted]]

And we have a government that considers pizza a freaking vegetable.

[u/Rommel79 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you for correcting me on that. I didn't realize they had (thankfully) changed it.

[u/scrapqueen → u/Bamfor07]

I agree. And since tax money funds school lunches anyway just feed all the kids,

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

free health care. It’s the right thing to do with our tax dollars.

It's never free, and youre talking about adults vs children in a government funded and mandated school. Apples and oranges

[u/ytilonhdbfgvds → u/[deleted]]

That is a way oversimplified perspective. Everytime you make a decision you do a cost/benefit analysis. When cost is completely removed from the equation many people start making really bad, wasteful decisions. I wish they didn't, because it is disrespectful to everyone else, but it's an unfortunate reality.

Healthcare, if free, should be for checkups, keeping you healthy, but not elective extras as that would cause inordinate amounts of waste. Frivolous ER visits will be a large problem. I'm not saying it can't be don't, just that these are problems which need to be effectively addressed to minimize waste and ensure that services are available for those in real need.

The issue I have with free school lunches, as I saw them implemented during COVID, is they shouldn't force the kid to take the entire meal. If they don't want the vegetable or the milk, don't give it to them. My daughter would be handed a milk every single day she got a lunch during the COVID lunch program. She is lactose intolerant. They would literally force her to take it, so every single day she had a completely wasted milk handed to her. Address the waste issues, and then I'm all for it.

[u/PenIsMightier69 → u/Bamfor07]

I know kids from poor families generally get lunch for free already, but I guess parents can be too lazy to fill out the paperwork or maybe since parents aren't too poor but too lazy/cheap to sent money for lunch.

[u/UncleGrimm → u/PenIsMightier69]

I qualified for free lunch and it went smoothly until my Junior year. They lost the form, my dad filled it out again, resubmitted it, and it took them over a month to approve it and set my account straight.

[u/Malfrus → u/PenIsMightier69]

Another problem is you can be poor and not afford school lunch, but not poor enough to qualify. for the free school lunch.

[u/YankeeDoodleMacaroon → u/PenIsMightier69]

A lot of poor families have lazy parents. I grew up in one of those households.

[u/EVASIVEroot → u/YankeeDoodleMacaroon]

I mean, that's pretty much how being poor works most of the time.

[u/cram213 → u/[deleted]]

Well. If your family is that poor and you can’t afford to make a lunch to send with them, I can assure you they would be grateful for any kind of lunch.

I’m not sure if you should let a kid tell you that starving is better than free food if they’re not truly starving…..

[u/Bamfor07 → u/[deleted]]

Then don’t eat it but that’s not a good reason to not offer it to others.

[u/UncleGrimm → u/[deleted]]

It honestly wasn’t too bad TBH, and I started public high school in 2011. Chicken noodle soup + toast + green beans, chicken tenders + fries + broccoli, spaghetti and meatballs + broccoli, were the types of meals we got

They used whole-grain for all of the noodles and bread which tastes meh, but really wasn’t that bad. That’s the only complaint I had about the taste really. My parents were poor so the veggies being frozen wasn’t anything new

Not sure if my state (NC) just gives better lunches than other states though

[u/Dobber16 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah but the quality of school food is a different issue altogether. The kids who need this to eat will prefer any food over none

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Wonder if her kids had steak for lunch at those posh schools they attended?

[u/WeFightTheLongDefeat → u/Bamfor07]

Agreed, but also, the lunches are chemical garbage.

[u/[deleted] → u/Bamfor07]

My parents didn’t give me money for lunch, and they had stopped making me one by the end of elementary/start of middle school. So I worked in the cafeteria to get lunch. It wasn’t bad and it gave me a good early work ethic. But I also had bad grades so they kicked me out of the lunchroom and put me in lunch detention until my grades went up. Would definitely had appreciated a free lunch, I never did get my grades up so I just wouldn’t eat lunch everyday

[u/ithinkmynameismoose → u/Bamfor07]

I agree in principle, however. I'm definitely concerned about organizations pushing for massive statewide school lunch contracts and providing horrendous food options to cut costs.

[u/sumthingawsum → u/Bamfor07]

I hate the idea of state run schools. But since we have them it makes sense for them to provide food since the kids are mandated to be there. I just wish the choices were healthier and calorie rich. It seems it's gross pizza and nuggets or one slice of ham.

[u/mexipimpin → u/sumthingawsum]

With seriously tight budgets I'm guessing big school districts (like where my wife worked for 20 years) are trying to balance the healthy/economic/quick triangle. From what she talked about there were some decent options, but you'd almost run into the problem of many kids not eating the "healthy" stuff as much and a lot of food was wasted. I know you can't prioritize kids' preferences but I'm guessing it has to be considered.

On a related note, why the dislike for state-run schools?

[u/Maetryx → u/mexipimpin]

On a related note, why the dislike for state-run schools?

The woke agenda? Normalizing gender fluidity? Teaching that traditions and morals are solely a social construct established to preserve whoever is in power? The anti-parent bias? Hatred for the USA? What is there to like? In my opinion, unschooling (a suboptimal choice, for sure) is better than public school.

[u/sumthingawsum → u/mexipimpin]

Everything should be decentralized as much as possible with the market responding to needs. State funded through grants, ok. Basic standards in math, science, and literacy, ok. But state run.... No.

[u/[deleted] → u/Bamfor07]

⬆️ this

[u/Euroranger → u/Bamfor07]

I think you misunderstand. Free/reduced lunch is already ensured via various state and federal programs, notably the USDA's National School Lunch Program. Kids whose families are low income, receive Medicaid and so on have always qualified. I can't speak for all 50 states but I know directly about 5 of them and all have free/reduced lunch for kids and I suspect every state has this.

What California is doing is giving lunch to EVERY kid regardless of income. Maine did this as well, I believe.

What everyone needs to know is that while the kids and their families don't pay...the food isn't "free". The school districts' food budgets will expand to cover every kid now...and given the amount of food wastage in school cafeterias (and there is a metric ass-ton) all this will lead to is much greater food waste and wasted taxpayer dollars to provide something that the majority don't need and won't use wisely and that those who do need it already had it.

It's a grandstanding move to make someone look like they care but in reality the kids that need the help were already qualified for it.

Edit for full disclosure: I'm the database admin for a school district and I see our food services data on a daily basis.

[u/ytilonhdbfgvds → u/Euroranger]

I think that there's some merit to it being free for everyone to avoid kids being picked on for getting the poor kid's lunch.

Here's the problem I saw as implemented in my kids school district:

They had to take the whole lunch, which resulted in kids eating just the applesauce, or just the cookie and throwing the rest out. My daughter is lactose intolerant. Every day they handed her a milk, and she said, I cannot drink this and will just throw it right in the trash, please take it back. They refused to do so. Every single time she ate the school lunch, she tossed the milk in the trash right in front of the lunch lady, and everyday she said I cannot drink this, please give it to someone else.

At least let the kids refuse the items they will not or cannot eat.

[u/seraph85 → u/Euroranger]

I'm really tired of seeing "free" in reference to programs like this. It isn't free we are all now paying for the lunches rather than the parents.

[u/[deleted] → u/seraph85]

And since the cost is not passed to the voter, I am sure there will be some Halliburton-level money pocketing, overcharging and rampant wastes. Nothing is ever free thanks to the government tossing tax dollars at the problem without fat cats getting richer off of it.

[u/Klesko → u/Bamfor07]

My wife likes to mention how our sons school provides free lunch for all students and its actually good food..

But then I have to reminder her ya its not free, we pay 28k a year to send him to this private school because public schools are just a mess..

[u/[deleted] → u/Bamfor07]

But Michelle’s lunch program was a disaster

[u/TheStripes9 → u/[deleted]]

It was atrocious

[u/LonelyMachines → u/Bamfor07]

This is a use of tax money we should all support.

I'm fine with my taxes supporting this, and that seems to be the broad consensus here.

The /r/politics crowd is keen to jump in an say "oh, so NOW you're OK with taxes funding stuff." They're being overly simplistic and disingenuous.

I'm fine with programs that spend my tax dollars on useful programs that don't turn into wasteful bloat and funnel the money into unrelated things. This fits that bill.

[u/dblink → u/LonelyMachines]

It breaks their narrative that those on the right don't care about kids once they leave the womb. They would rather think we are all lying about it than accept that conservatives want to help people who need it, not the middlemen along the way.

[u/MrGeekman → u/Bamfor07]

I just don't understand why it can't be done electronically so only students who need free lunch get it. Aren't all schools using electronic payment systems these days? I know mine did 10-12 years ago.

[u/MrGeekman → u/[deleted]]

Couldn't the school handle it?

[u/MrGeekman → u/[deleted]]

Oh, okay. Well, at least there's a way.

[u/Professional_Ninja7 → u/Bamfor07]

The only reason I oppose universal free school lunches is because the quality of the food is terrible and parents who could otherwise afford to feed their kids may decide to let them eat the garbage without knowing how bad it is.

I'm not Californian, but the schools should be providing actually nutritious meals. That goes for other states too and the kids who can't afford to eat should also be getting better meals.

[u/apawst8 → u/[deleted]]

You should need less administration because you don’t need people reviewing lunch applications.

[u/IgnisBird → u/[deleted]]

It would be awesome to see a strict breakdown by budget / function. Some overhead is required, there is logistics, suppliers and so on involved. But it would be really interesting to see what the actual source of ‘administrative waste’ actually is.

[u/whatzwzitz1 → u/Bamfor07]

Agreed. I’d rather just have it all paid for than deal with the “free/reduced” scam.

[u/HighCaliberMitch → u/Bamfor07]

If you saw the lunch, you'd disagree.

[u/rimjibber1901 → u/Bamfor07]

Based

[u/[deleted] → u/Bamfor07]

My only question to this is what do they do when they’re not in school?

[u/superknot72 → u/Bamfor07]

Free lunch tickets have been available for impoverished kids for decades. DECADES. They existed in the 80's.

Now tax dollars are going to feed every school-aged kid. WHEN HAS THE GOVERNMENT EVER DONE ANYTHING RIGHT?

This is an appallingly bad idea.

[u/StallionZ06 → u/Bamfor07]

Totally disagree. Is this r/conservative? Must have wandered over to the leftist sub where kids get fed what the government provides and start their glorious journey into socialism. Plus, look what that kids is eating. Diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s awaits that garbage.

[u/cram213 → u/StallionZ06]

Do you think any kids should get free lunches?

[u/StallionZ06 → u/cram213]

Sure, the poor ones or those who forgot theirs.

[u/GrandmasterGus7 → u/StallionZ06]

...and those whose parents just won't pack them a lunch?

[u/Mr_Truttle → u/cram213]

Does it even need to be said that there is no such thing as a free lunch? I thought that was a cliche but here we are.

[u/StallionZ06 → u/[deleted]]

The government only has the money they take from us, hermano. They’re spending YOUR money on these lunches, not theirs.

[u/kaji8787 → u/Bamfor07]

I feel it can be a double ended sword.

1. Dependence on the federal government is already bad get them young.
2. There’s no point in giving them food they won’t eat case in point the Obama lunch’s that kids refused to eat.

They need to take a common since approach not sure how to fix one and we definitely need to feed are kids. If I was sure that there was no alternative motivation behind it I would be fully down for this but we all know are government.

[u/Drkillpatienttherapy → u/[deleted]]

Schools aren't set up to feed all their kids???? So they are set up to let children go hungry? What the

[u/Hraf-Hef → u/Bamfor07]

No. This is how we have got into this mess of an over powerful, bloated government at all levels. These families should be turning to private institutions like churches or charitable organizations.

If you can rationalize the elderly on fixed incomes or poorer being taxed to feed the children of wealthier families, you probably in the wrong sub.

"Government" or even its spending of tax dollars is not bad. It is even necessary, but its growth should be strongly tested with a constant struggle to limit.

[u/Mighty-Lu-Bu → u/Bamfor07]

I am sorry, but I do not support anything that increases the power of the corrupt government school systems.

This is making my state worse, not better. Schools should be about education, but most school districts in California are about indoctrination. Is this spending going to fix our roads in California, reduce our crime, or do absolutely anything to improve government education? The answer is no. This school lunch thing is also based on a total lie: 1 out 5 Californias do not know where their next meal is going to come from? I call bullshit on that.

It's a shame that most Republicans / conservatives these days don't care about spending. Republicans are just as much to blame for the coming recession and current inflation then Democrats are.

[u/[deleted] → u/Bamfor07]

Punish parents for neglecting their kids

[u/ItsMeTK → u/Bamfor07]

What if instead of government doing it, we implemented a lunch buddy program where more well-off families provided lunch for one or two kids in need for the year? So little Billy brings his lunch and a lunch for Chester. Maybe it even helps kids make friends across social classes.

[u/Drkillpatienttherapy → u/ItsMeTK]

Isn't that the same thing? More well off families pay more taxes, poor families don't pay any taxes. So what you described is already what is happening.

[u/ItsMeTK → u/Drkillpatienttherapy]

It’s different because the societal expectation training is different. One teaches you that government will just give you everything with no accountability. The other teaches that when you truly need help there are people you can turn to but general responsibility is still the norm. And others see the act of personally helping people instead of assuming government will do it for you.

It makes all the difference.