Officials say eliminating the distinction will reduce the stigma associated with receiving subsidized meals and also improve the nutrition of students school-wide, which could improve academic performance....Even assuming this is a good idea, how do they get the numbers to put into the calculation? I guess they don't have to force everyone to tell their income to the authorities, just enough to hit the percentage. Once everyone in the school is getting free meals, everyone has an interest in the continued flow of free food, which could end if X number of families begin to make too much money. That's a strange situation! How can they keep track?
Enrolling the schools in the federal program was one of several strategies the Madison district is deploying to make its food service budget more sustainable, and less dependent on the district’s general fund to remain balanced.If it weren't for the bad punctuation, I'd think that was intended as comic writing. Next time you're dining out with a friend and the check arrives, sit calmly with your hands in your lap and observe that you are deploying a strategy to make your budget more sustainable. Maybe your dinner companion will laugh, but if he doesn't, and he pays, you ought to wonder what conditions are attached.
ADDED: A reader emails:
[At the Wisconsin school where I work, we] too are going to the totally free meals for our students (about 400). We currently have about 80% of our students on Free Lunch so from the perspective of reducing paperwork for our staff in makes real sense.
How it works is that about now as school starts, and then periodically through the year schools will submit a file to the state. That file will be matched against state data bases and return a file showing what students are eligible based on family enrollment in a variety of “welfare” programs. This is called Direct Certification. If parents are not identified as being eligible they receive a letter telling them they are not and allowing them to complete an application to demonstrate their eligibility. So to answer your early question of how they are determined, the bulk are from the Direct Certification process.
Once in the program I believe you are in for four years. At the end of those four years you will have to reapply based on the current situation of your families. Again, because the basic information come from the state based on enrollment in programs there it will be relatively easy to do.
I have mixed emotions about the program, but as a school official it would be malfeasance to not attempt to use a program that is eligible to us and would save us money....
Posts
75 comments:
I wonder what strings are attached, and I wonder how food waste will increase. I think a study about the latter would be very interesting.
I will guess that the Company providing these "delicious" meals to the Schools likely lobbied for the passage of the bill, and are making a tidy profit as a result of it.
(My kids brown-bagged in elementary/middle school, and came home for lunch in High School).
I suppose the school lunch milk cartons are no longer stamped "Homo Milk" in purple ink on top.
"one of several strategies the Madison district is deploying to make its food service budget more sustainable"
= Robbing all the other Peters across the country by handing them more debt to pay Madison Paul.
Ah yes, the grinding poverty of Madison.
It's not real money if it comes from the Federal government, so it's cool to grab as much as you can.
Maybe they can spend some of that saved money on heat.
Everyone pictured in that lunch line has caps and coats on.
gspencer said...
"one of several strategies the Madison district is deploying to make its food service budget more sustainable"
= Robbing all the other Peters across the country by handing them more debt to pay Madison Paul.
Hey man, dat be a strategy dey be deployin. The real question is, why do they let the kids go home for dinner? Why not keep em in school and deploy a further strategy to shift that Madison cost to the rest of the country. Yeah, dat be strategizen.
==========================
Is it really bad to have a "stigma" attached to making other people support you? Maybe that's a signal that there is something wrong with that?
Here's a comment I posted on another board. It seems appropriate here:
My 1950's grade school in Wisconsin had 6 classrooms for grades K through 5. There were 6 teachers and zero staff. The 5th grade teacher was also the principal.
There were music and physical education teachers who visited every other day. The janitor was part time.
There was no hot lunch. Everyone brought a lunch from home. The lucky ones had a thermos bottle in their lunch bucket. White milk was one cent, chocolate milk was 2 cents for half a pint.
I'm sure Crack Emcee will find the disparity in the prices of white and chocolate milk racist.
"That's a strange situation! How can they keep track?"
They don't. Once you're in, you're in.
My brother got laid off and his kids got free school lunches for awhile. Actually, until the end of the year because, even though he got another job, when he tried to let the school know and take his kids off the program the school said it was too much trouble with paperwork and such and to just let it ride.
For an entire school, I would say it's going to "ride" for at least 10 years without anybody thinking twice. In fact, you could say it's a sign they don't ever expect the situation to change. They're not going to improve the neighborhood, they're just going to subsidize the poverty.
Tank: Is it really bad to have a "stigma" attached to making other people support you? Maybe that's a signal that there is something wrong with that?
My father's family was on welfare when he was a child, and he was ashamed of it. We never were - he made sure of that.
He always said that removing the stigma from welfare was the worst thing to do.
In the schools where I taught, all of the kids had a card they swiped to pay for their food. Some of them had the card filled with cash their parents paid every month, and some of the kids had their cards filled totally or partially by the government. No one but the accountant who handled the cafeteria budget had any idea which kids were getting their lunches paid for. No stigma. And no bully could steal your lunch money.
Is there really a stigma attached?
We moved a lot, and my kids went to several different schools. And there was never any discussion about the kids who were on subsidized meal programs. Zero.
It seems to me they are creating a problem because they *want* to invoke their solution.
Interesting how well-distributed around town these schools are:
http://s30.postimg.org/agniu9sht/Free_Lunch_Schools.jpg
When I was a kid in grade school, my sisters and I got free lunches for low income families. There was never any "stigma" to it. Nobody ever said anything about it. In student body of around 500, I'd guess there were far less than 10% like us. Seems like it would have been an expensive endeavor to subsidize the entire school just so a small fraction would be spared some potential "stigma". I don't believe the federal government should be spending money to ensure that kids don't get their feelings hurt.
There's no stigma attached to not being able to read or do arithmetic; this seems to be small potatoes compared to that.
Every year my kids old public school would send out a survey to ask about my income and job. I never returned it. But there was not a lick of verification in the process.
YMMV.
_XC
Penelope Trunk just posted a very interesting article about this topic. There are ramifications about this beyond the breakfast.
http://education.penelopetrunk.com/2014/08/15/school-replaces-family-one-meal-at-a-time/
I don't want a stigma attached to reparations so I want them too.
Penelope Trunk just posted a very interesting article about this topic.
Interesting. It's hard to say we shouldn't feed kids at school who need it. It's odd to feed an entire school, though. I think being forced to eat school lunches always can't possibly be good for most kids. Better than eating nothing, but I think I would rather have had a sandwich from home.
(the only thing worth eating at my high school was the homemade rolls, pretty awesome.)
The overwhelming majority of students at the neighborhood elementary school get free lunch.
When I was growing up, you said your account number at checkout. No one knew which account numbers were paid by parents and which account numbers were paid by the state.
Sean F:
Nonsense. We're not subsidizing the poor, incentivizing dependence and keeping society stratified through free school lunches, we're including the poor into the 'community,' alleviating hunger which is a human right, and making everyone one-step closer to progress and absolute equality.
Join Us! Kale and free-range chicken sandwiches in the park on Saturdays! All comers! No judgment!
Tasty!
Seriously, it's what the majority wants. It's Democracy Now.
Join Us! Please! Maybe you're one of those genetically based resisters. I get it. Lots of science out there.
These programs help all of us, and we must fight and activate to secure the funding. Connect with the community.
Listen, other people are saying you're racist. I know you're better than that.
Seriously, join us. Now.
Now, Sean.
Some years back good friend's mother managed the kitchen at a local school. She told me they weren't permitted to ask for verification of income. If the parents stated they made below a well-known threshold, their kids ate lunch for free.
Leftists won't be happy until we're all standing in line waiting for our alloted loaf of bread from the ever-benevolent Uncle Sugar.
I wonder how many schools will surprise their students this fall with little brown enrollees from the south.
Libs convince themselves there really is a Free Lunch.
I thought everyone in Madison was above average in intelligence and income.
Lake Wobegone, WI
Federal grants are levers to help raise local taxes.
Isn't shame a useful tool in the education tool box?
As a kid, I had to show my discount/subsidy card every lunch. It was embarrassing and I was ashamed as a 10 year old. I strived to avoid that shame. Got a job at 13 selling subscriptions and have never not worked.
(Obviously, more than shame contributed to what I am, but that was important. If the school had saved me from it, it would have made concession to poverty an acceptable option. Enough such concessions and a boy might get the wrong message.)
Perhaps Madison is still in the 20th century, but here in Red State land, kids buy their lunches through a computerized account that parents refill. Those on subsidized or free lunches simply have those accounts flagged. Even the cashier has no idea what plan you are on.
Not exactly up on what's current, are they? Schools are dropping Moosh's lunch standards.
This is all about the Benjamin's. It also makes me wonder if a relative is supplying the food.
Wait a minute why does Madison have poor schools?
Bus them.
You know, it really IS becoming fascinating to me how the Right WILL let the Pentagon and police waste billions of dollars on needless hardware that is, a lot of times, used for nothing more than terrorising someone, including American citizens.
And yet, let an idea like feeding American kids come along, and suddenly it's time to pull out the ol' accountant's visor and see what exactly's going on here.
Scud missiles, Nuclear warships or whatever? Green Light. Reparations for wronged Americans? Fuck that.
It puts their whole concept of patriotism in question,...
It's interesting that Crack and I both assumed that the poor kids in Madison are the black kids in Madison.
The idea of feeding hungry children is not about reparations, it's about compassion for fellow human beings.
Tank,
"Is it really bad to have a "stigma" attached to making other people support you? Maybe that's a signal that there is something wrong with that?"
Whites would bring blacks out, naked, and (euphemism) "check us out." And then came the raping - which everyone knew about because white men didn't hide it from anyone but their wives.
So black people, whether as house or field slaves, never had any privacy, with babies born in public - while working - and we all know whippings were public and required being stripped, from the waist up, for males and females alike.
And then,..well, I could go on for a while. 400 years is a long time. Here's the point:
Blacks have never had the luxury of shame, because white supremacy has never allowed the luxury of freedom, both being hinged on blacks making our own decisions - and not those forced upon us by whites.
It's distinctions, like that, that make comments like yours sound like you should be watching Sesame Street and not making judgements on American's lives,...
We have spent so much time and effort dealing with the shame and stigma of public assistance, that now people are not only not embarrassed, they feel a righteous entitlement to other people's money.
Making someone else pay for what you consume is sustainable only so long as the other fellows are willing and able to pay.
Also, if we aren't allowed to verify their citizenship why would we be allowed to verify their income for qualification purposes? I get the incentives but what are the limiting principles(principals?!) on giving free stuff broadly to avoid alleged individual stigma? War on Shame!
Crack
Are you capable of addressing what I said about stigmas? I think it's natural to be ashamed of having to be supported by others, and natural to be ashamed to be part of a family that does the same. In particular, I think a MAN who does not support himself and his family has plenty to be ashamed about.
Shame can be good. It can motivate people to be better.
At one time, I was ashamed of being fat. It motivated me to get in shape. I used to look at myself naked every day and say, I'm gonna fix that. And I did.
There are logical replies to this argument. Can you make a logical reply that does not include any BS about slavery?
Carol,
"I wonder how many schools will surprise their students this fall with little brown enrollees from the south."
WOW.
Just WOW.
If I don't scroll down further and find someone else calling this comment what it is, I will DEFINITELY know what the rest of y'all are. What did Rick Perry's buddies say?
"No one thought anything about it.”
Is that much different than "We don't even THINK about race!" which is what y'all used to say?
White women like Carol have an ugly history,...
Adam Carolla rant about "free" school breakfasts. Bit of adult language in there.
Officials say eliminating the distinction will reduce the stigma associated with receiving subsidized meals ...
If anything, they should increase the stigma.
...and also improve the nutrition of students school-wide, which could improve academic performance.
That won't happen. It never does.
Tank,
It's interesting that Crack and I both assumed that the poor kids in Madison are the black kids in Madison.
I assumed no such thing - you've made an assumption - I just speak about blacks.
"The idea of feeding hungry children is not about reparations, it's about compassion for fellow human beings."
Another admission a loudmouthed white dude doesn't understand what reparations are. Hint:
They have no place in this discussion.
And since The Black Panthers invented America's Free Breakfast For Children program - to combat white's racism - I'd save any white lectures on who understands compassion.
You lose, asshole.
Now slink back to your hole - without comment - unless it's to acknowledge how thoroughly wrong-headed and insulting you are to the concept of American patriotism,...
Crack said: If I don't scroll down further and find someone else calling this comment what it is, I will DEFINITELY know what the rest of y'all are.
Well, I just got here, and you beat me to it.
I typically think about 99% of what you say is purest race-baiting drivel, or (if I'm feeling optimistic) bad performance art.
But ... this is that 1% where you're right, and when I saw that comment scrolling down, I was disgusted to be in the company of such a person.
Gahrie, The Genius:
"We have spent so much time and effort trying to avoid dealing with the shame and stigma of owning slaves, the slaves are not only not embarrassed, they now feel a righteous entitlement to everything we took from them."
FIFY
Crack
Thank you for calling me an asshole, and thank you for proving my point.
Question, why do we have school lunch programs if parents are poor enough to (presumably) be getting food stamps? Couldn't they feed the kids using food purchased at the store? It seems like that would leave out any potential stigma to the children, unless people think bringing your lunch to school (which I did almost my entire childhood) would be stigmatizing in and of itself.
Is it because the income levels are different?
Tank,
"Are you capable of addressing what I said about stigmas? I think it's natural to be ashamed of having to be supported by others,,...Can you make a logical reply that does not include any BS about slavery?"
Why? You have two specific groups of people in America who are used to being supported by each other over 4 centuries - blacks and whites.
Whites set it up - exclusively.
Where's the shame? Martin Luther King has made it clear to blacks we have "nothing to be ashamed of."
Not so sure about whites.
Sounds to me like you just don't like the terms of the agreement changing - again, no stigma on blacks for that. We're winning. Using white's rules.
Whites set it up - exclusively,...
Tank,
"Can you make a logical reply that does not include any BS about slavery?"
Tanker, I know you're a smart guy (really) so can't you see how dumb that sounds:
Leave out the very thing that covers most of our country's history and addresses most of our major problems - white supremacy and slavery.
Do you ask yourself why that has to happen?
The last official lynching was in 1981. Let's say, that's our unofficial cut-off line for traditional white "racism" (not the "colorblind" variety created after the Civil Rights laws came into being):
If slavery started in 1609, with white supremacy stretching from then until 1981 (let's say) how can we not talk about white supremacy as a source of our problems when it was the law of the land and a firm reality?
It's trying to avoid those topics that's a diversion,...
On stigma and judgments, I find Planet Fitness boasts to be a "judgement (sic) free zone".
A siren goes off when "someone is grunting at the gym, drops weights or is judging others/making others feel uncomfortable.
Heavens! We certainly don't want that.
Crack
Again proves my point.
The school lunch program, as originally conceived, was a subsidy to American farmers. Here's the USDA's description of the original legislation: "The object of this legislation was to remove price-depressing surplus foods from the market through government purchase and dispose of them through exports and domestic donations to consumers in such a way as not to interfere with normal sales."
I don't suppose the subsidized farmers felt any stigma. Why should the hungry children?
Matt,
"I don't suppose the subsidized farmers felt any stigma. Why should the hungry children?"
Because kids don't have a constituency, so fuck 'em.
And, if they grow up to be adults without one, fuck 'em, again.
Of course, the people fuckin' 'em are the same ones who are trying to get the fucked to vote thier way.
They hold out the idea that, as "the party of the rich" you can get rich, too - and get the same government favors whites got.
But then, if you check them out as they asked, they're talking shit about your kind and say you have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps - as they try to stop others from getting what whites got - because whites say it's expensive to do that, without irony.
The stigma I've suffered is for believing it might be possible they weren't lying.
My friends, yesterday, were having a good laugh, saying "We knew you'd be back!" and they were right:
I may not be a liberal, but selling out my friends and family ain't in my blood,...
Do parents have ANY responsibilities for their children anymore?
Tank,
"Crack
Again proves my point."
Funny but, when my point gets proven, it's usually in print:
"White power won’t give in — and that’s why there will be more Fergusons."
When will they start giving ME free meals?
I mean if the feds have that kind of money to throw around.
"you have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps"
I've always wondered about that phrase. It's almost physically impossible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps (that little tab in the back or those two tabs on the side of boots). Maybe that's the point?
Whenever any situation that could be solved with a little personal responsibility or integrity comes up, the lefties trot out "stigma!"
I think we can cease worrying about stigma attached to little kids getting free lunches until such time as we revive stigma for making babies out of wedlock. Or thugs punching store clerks. Or "campaign workers" whose task is to bus people from precinct to precinct voting illegally.
Shanna,
I am not a social worker, but I have talked to social workers. When they let their hair down, they will tell about their clients with designer clothes and mani-pedis, and the children sleep on a naked mattress and all their clothes come from thrift stores.
The free school lunches, and breakfasts, are so that at least *some* of the money goes to feed the kids.
Crack: "I may not be a liberal...."
LOL
Good one crack!
School Lunch is one of the more corrupt programs. I managed this program for a number of years. When the Feds required "eligible" families to provide social security numbers, a significant number of families decided they were no longer eligible. When we were required to audit a sample of "eligible" families incomes, another large number of those "eligibles" dropped out.
What a surprise!! Now, apparently, eligibility is determined by the Feds on a blanket basis. Do you think there are really fewer "eligibles" now??
Where's the shame? Martin Luther King has made it clear to blacks we have "nothing to be ashamed of."
True in '64. But after fifty years of tommin' for the white liberals who are happily destroying you so they can secure your vote...lots to be ashamed of.
Interesting. In this context, We're to accept that this has been done to erase "stigma."
Why do I suspect that in another context, the number of children receiving free lunches, i.e. the total enrollment numbers of all the children in these 7 schools, will be trotted out as evidence of hunger and poverty in Madison.
Clearly, even more must be done!
Delayna,
"Whenever any situation that could be solved with a little personal responsibility or integrity comes up, like whites and reparations,..."
broomhandle,
"After fifty years of tommin' for the white liberals who are happily destroying you so they can secure your vote...lots to be ashamed of."
You do see how it's kinda hard to take that "fifty years" comment seriously, from a white person, after the right's been behind 400 years of "tommin' for the white" supremacists, don't you?
No, I guess not.
Like Rick Perry's friends say, "No one thought anything about it.”
They also said "Rick’s covering his tracks. ”
We know, y'all, we know.
BTW - I'm back on Twitter again,...
The truth is that if you try to get along on what the government hands out you don't get much.
It's like this: Two people start off, both poor. One goes government, is secure, stays just above poor for the next ten years. The other gets a job, is insecure for awhile, rises and rises in work world,gets away from poverty, and starts taking vacation trips, buying new clothes and enjoying life. It just isn't true that being on the take from the government is a smart strategy when you are young. The government gets your chin above water in the swamp - that's it. Working (after a few years) gets you a trip to the beach and swimming in the Atlantic breakers.
These government lunches are being avoided by all the kids with money and/or with parents who pack extras. It's only the poor kids who are left hungry - pretty ironic, right? - considering that these meals are really intended to help the poor kids.
Why don't the liberals pay attention to the consequences of their actions?
wildswan,
"The truth is that if you try to get along on what the government hands out you don't get much."
That's true, but you wouldn't know it listening to these clowns.
"It's like this: Two people start off, both poor."
It's not like that. If one is black and one is white you are starting off from a flawed premise. Every study in the world says so.
No need to go on,...
"Scud missiles, Nuclear warships or whatever? Green Light. Reparations for wronged Americans? Fuck that."
Scud missiles are made by Russia and North Korea. But crack your views on military issues, as well history and economics are appreciated, they always make me laugh.
"Whites would bring blacks out, naked, and (euphemism) "check us out." And then came the raping - which everyone knew about because white men didn't hide it from anyone but their wives.
So black people, whether as house or field slaves, never had any privacy, with babies born in public - while working - and we all know whippings were public and required being stripped, from the waist up, for males and females alike.
And then,..well, I could go on for a while. 400 years is a long time. Here's the point:
Blacks have never had the luxury of shame, because white supremacy has never allowed the luxury of freedom, both being hinged on blacks making our own decisions - and not those forced upon us by whites."
Did black slaves had better life in their native Africa? I mean, before white people bought them from black skaters, brought them to USA, and then later freed them?
"The last official lynching was in 1981. Let's say, that's our unofficial cut-off line for traditional white "racism" (not the "colorblind" variety created after the Civil Rights laws came into being):"
Could you provide a few more details from here? Which government did the lynching in 1981?
Crack babbles:
"You know, it really IS becoming fascinating to me how the Right WILL let the Pentagon and police waste billions of dollars on needless hardware that is, a lot of times, used for nothing more than terrorising someone, including American citizens. "
If we were short of evidence that Crack is clueless, here is a prime example.
"The right" is COMPLETELY HOSTILE to the idea of the police being (para-) militarized with lots of needless (i.e. expensive) hardware. Totally.
You're just not listening, Crack.
And great Ghu, regarding the shame of being supported by others: I spent half-a-decade living among subsistance farmers in Africa, and let me tell you--their lives weren't easy, and would have put the average soft American into complete depression and worse, but one thing that was darn certain: the south Sudanese I lived among worked darn hard and supported themselves with every single pound and penny of their income. Other than building one (dirt) road between the major cities (and that itself was really paid for by foreign aid) the "government" did nothing, NOTHING to aid the lifestyle of their citizens.
Sigivald,
Don't be an idiot. Instead, go (re)read The Camp Of The Saints and do a book report here of how it ended.
(Interestingly, in between commenting here I'm having a Facebook conversation with a Kenyan fellow I met last year; one of my points I'm making with him is that if all the highly-capable people from around the world get themselves to "the west", their home countries will almost certainly end up worse off...)
Our entire school district is now covered under that :
We are excited to inform you that [the district] will be implementing a new option available to schools participating in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program for the upcoming school year! The program is called the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP).
FREE AND REDUCED MEAL APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE REQUIRED from our families for the 2014-2015 school year. The CEP program will provide a healthy breakfast and lunch each school at NO CHARGE for ALL students enrolled during the 20147-2015 School Year. This program does not include second meals and a la carte purchases, but are available for an additional cost.
Bold and CAPS in original.
So exciting. The government wants to feed our kids for free. Crappy food. That they'll throw away.
And the "obesity epidemic" has its roots in the government telling us what to eat and feeding our kids in schools.
Post a Comment