<p>I have never heard of kids in our school (middle or high school) getting a free lunch if they have no money. They go hungry or borrow money from a friend. My kids often had no lunch since they were to lazy to pack one. They both usually were starved when they got home and ate lunch at 3.
In elementary school if you forgot your lunch you were given a peanut butter sandwich. I don’t think anyone had it happen on a regular basis.</p>
<p>One more thing - we used to offer kids who charged too much either a peanut butter or a cheese sandwich, but with the peanut allergies in school and now with the salmonella-tainted peanut butter, we’ve stopped serving peanut butter altogether.</p>
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<p>Yuck??? One of my favorite sandwiches from childhood, although I haven’t had one for a while. Actually, I’m getting a little hankering for a banana sandwich…will have to stop by the store to get a loaf of Wonder Bread and some bananas.</p>
<p>banana and peanut butter sandwiches are the absolute greatest.</p>
<p>When my kids were in the lower grades, those that didn’t pay their lunch tab were given a bowl of soup.</p>
<p>^Wasn’t that Elvis’s favorite sandwiches (fried of course?)</p>
<p>my mother would take the frozen white bread out of the freezer, spread the mayo on the frozen bread, put on 1 slice of meat and 1 slice of cheese (she bought the cheese that was individually wrapped). She would then put the sandwich in the refrigerator overnight. Mushy doesn’t BEGIN to describe those sandwiches. </p>
<p>I don’t think in 12 years of school I ever bought anything from the cafeteria. Parents didn’t give me money and I was not permitted to have access to any money that was mine (until I was in my late teens).</p>
<p>D1’s school had the greatest lunches (and breakfasts). Fresh, interesting bread, salad and soup bars, plus well-cooked entrees. She ate well over her four years there. It was a private school, so if a kid didn’t have money, they just billed the parents.</p>
<p>D2 has the absolute worst of the NYC public school system in her cafeteria. It’s filthy, crowded, and the food is truly revolting. She doesn’t have a lunch period this year, so we try to pack her a nice lunch every day. Actually I pack her lunch almost every day and take great pride in cutting the sandwich in four triangles or giving her a cute little cup for her dressing. Also notes. On the occasion that I don’t pack her lunch, hubby drops takeout and gives that to her. Her favorite is a chicken parm hero, but sometimes she gets Chinese or BBQ.</p>
<p>Thanks for the insight, Lafalum. It rings true to my ears. It’s clear that some parents just aren’t paying attention. By the way, when the 7-11 corporation opened their first local store in our neck of the woods in 1970, strategically located on a straight line between my house and my middle school, where do you think many of my classmates headed after school at 2.30? It’s a good thing we had a ‘closed campus rule’ during the lunch hours.</p>
<p>"simba, do you like hummus? You can make a good sandwich out of it, with tomatoes, cucumber, basil. "</p>
<p>Yes I like hummus, but may favorite is baba ganoush on Pita Bread.</p>
<p>I got peanut butter and jelly, fruit and milk for 10 cents when I was in junior high. I think these kids are getting a deal!</p>
<p>I feel kind of bad for these children only because they have to eat something different from the other kids. I have no problem with what they are being served - it might even be healthier than the meals the other kids are buying. I know that there are parents out there just trying to get by & I know there are other parents who just don’t care. I even know that there are parents who have the money but just don’t want to pay their lunch bill. Unfortunately it is the kids that suffer.</p>
<p>“I feel kind of bad for these children only because they have to eat something different from the other kids.”</p>
<p>Plenty of kids eat something different than lunches schools provide. Lots of kids bring their own lunches.</p>
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<p>Bingo. And while it’s true that kids eat different things, the kids who eat the cheese sandwiches day after day are the ones whose parents can’t/won’t pay the bill. Am I the only one who has ever seen kids get teased because of their parents poverty?</p>
<p>pugmadkate - I agree that I don’t like seeing the kids stigmatized for their parents’ poor choices. I’m not sure what the answer is. </p>
<p>My D was teased during middle school because of the lunches she brought. She loved cottage cheese, yogurt and carrots. There were lots of “yucks” and “that stinks.”</p>
<p>pugmadkate…I think the point would be valid if the kids who were served something different were the kids on free/reduced lunch. The kids who were given this food were simply kids whose parents did not pay. That doesn’t mean they could not afford to pay. If they could not pay, they could be given free regular lunch. </p>
<p>I think the school did a good thing to provide for these kids so they were not doing without. How do you expect the school to afford to pay for them to get the regular lunch for free day in and day out with no intent of the parents to pay? The way I see it, the kids who got the cold lunch were kids who simply didn’t bring in the money or a bag lunch from home. I don’t think of them as suffering. Suffering would be doing without. The school helped them out in the meantime. I don’t think the kids were stigmatized for their income but more for not bringing in what was required. </p>
<p>At our school, not everyone is eating the same thing anyway…they have either one of four things…lunch brought from home, hot lunch, cold lunch, or vegetarian option. This is a small rural public school where there are also kids on free and reduced lunch. What they eat has no correlation to their income. I feel the same at the school in the article. The kids who had the cold lunch sandwiches may be able to afford what the kids who had the hot lunch can afford but their parents simply did not send in the money. The kids were not penalized but were fed. A school can’t be expected to spend money giving the same thing to kids whose parents did not pay (who are not qualified for free lunch) to those whose parents did pay. The school has to do something to get the families to do their responsibilities. I don’t see the school making the kids suffer. This is in the hands of their parents.</p>
<p>I tended to bring a lunch, and have a school lunch as well… I can’t recall many guys in high school throwing away any kind of lunch… we needed the calories.</p>