Denver public schools offer a free breakfast to ALL students every school day, no economic qualifications. Very few take advantage and its fewer still in middle school and high school. My daughter never once ate the free breakfast and she qualified for free lunch too but never ate it. In the summer it is free breakfast and lunches for anyone at some schools in low income areas, and not that many kids take advantage of it. I’m glad it is there for those who do. there are also free snacks at the public rec centers in the summer, all activities are free, and again the younger kids benefit but once they reach middle school they drop out.
Really, how are they going to expand free and reduced lunch to college kids? The schools have to keep records and serve certain foods. My kids’ elementary school (catholic school) didn’t participate because the woman who ran the cafeteria said she tried it and it was just too much trouble and too much oversight- and the kids didn’t like the food. She had her menus and just charged more ($3 instead of $1.40 or whatever public schools charged). One of my kids went to a public school for middle school (k-12 school) and they didn’t participate in the free/reduced program either (or free breakfast). I can’t imagine a college agreeing to do the federal program, or it would have to set aside one cafeteria to do it; the poor kids eat at the prison food cafeteria and the rich kids eat at the nice one? That’s pretty much how the high schools do it around here, with the ‘free lunch’ program line and the prepackaged, grab-n-go line. Guess which line is longer?
I’m a big believer that all school lunch programs should be free to all - they are kids, feed them. Get rid of the administrative paperwork of who qualifies and who doesn’t, just give them food. Give them white milk and get rid of all the juice and power drinks and crap at the schools. But by college? No.