You’re right, jonri. Sorry.
Chobani is an interesting company. They do tend to be a good charitable giver in their communities and they hire many refugees. They also fought their tax assessment in Twin Falls so that the schools received almost 3/4 million less.
CNN reported that the sandwiches would be jelly, maybe because for kids with allergies they would be. Chobani drew attention to a situation and called on other companies to get involved. That’s more than one district, one time.
Reports from people involved with the district on an official capacity indicate that the policy was that if those students chose hot food it would be removed from their trays, thrown away, and be replaced with cold sandwiches. So yes, singled out and shamed. The district backpedaled pretty quickly as soon as national attention swung their way. If this motivates individuals to learn more about school district funding and get involved on a local level then I think Chobani did a good thing.
On a related note, though maybe it should be a new thread, I am genuinely curious- do you all have so little confidence in your public schools that you think they intentionally hurt children, and if so, why on earth are you sending your children there? I realize private school isn’t always an option, but there are charters, homeschooling coops, etc. Some parents do not have any other choice, but some in this district presumably do-if you lack all trust in school officials, then frankly lunch time should be the least of your worries
The WP article’s title is somewhat misleading and calculated to get people to click and read. Students without funds are actually getting a sunflower butter and jelly sandwich, which is something I also eat. I think the SunButter is offered to avoid the allergy issue. But the reality is - kids are being shamed. Hungry kids don’t learn.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/30/well/family/lunch-shaming-children-parents-school-bills.html
On the surface, people may look like they have everything together and we wonder why people don’t pay, but we really don’t know what else is going on in their lives. I hope if nothing else this pushes us to ask our districts how large our lunch debt is and what the policy is when a student is out of funds. If you’re not comfortable with the policy - whatever it is - what can you do to influence it?
If you take a kid’s lunch away and give her a cold sandwich, as is described in the NYT article, you’re not doing it to save money. You’re doing it to punish and shame the child. The article clearly demonstrates the shame and how it lingers.
My own personal experience with this:
My kid went to three different elementary schools including one private, one public and one charter. At the private school, we paid tuition but everyone got the same hot lunch every day. Lunches from home were not tolerated. At both the public and charter schools, we were one of the “wealthier” families even though we’re pretty solidly middle class. Kid had lunch accounts at both that I did maintain balances even though she usually took her own lunches (picky eater). At one of the schools, we found out that a close friend of hers was in the situation where the parent wasn’t paying into the account. This was a family just outside of the lunch qualifications. I told D to let the friend eat off her account since it was near the end of the semester and we were about the lose the funds anyway (they didn’t carry over for some reason). School wouldn’t let her. So, I told D to just go ahead and get a meal even though she had packed a lunch and share the meal. School wouldn’t let her. I packed an extra lunch for her to give her friend. School wouldn’t let her. If this isn’t shaming, I don’t know what is. (BTW, no allergies)
It would only cost 150 million to provide free lunches to everyone. (50 million school kids X $3 per lunch as a rough estimate). That seems doable.
Why is no one quoting local info? You already know the national press got the jelly only thing wrong.
https://patch.com/rhode-island/cranston/amid-lunch-shaming-outrage-some-schools-shoulder-lunch-debt
And, “SunButter is free from the top 8 food allergens: peanuts, tree nuts, soy, milk, eggs, wheat, fish, and crustacean shellfish…”
They were not denied lunch. On the hs level, at least, they were denied a la carte items such as pizza, chips, ice cream. The SBJ sandwich was an ongoing optional choice for any kid. If you read the link, they have not abandoned the Free/Reduced Lunch program. As little as a phone call can be made by a parent.
And imo, you want to be careful about accusations of lunch shaming without further info. The cashier was not throwing away hot lunches- that was one anecdote for which we have no context.
The cold lunch also includes fruit, veg, and milk. But from the nationsl media, you’d think kids were voluntarily being starved.
Speaking for myself, I view this is a larger problem than just the RI school that’s currently in the news. The title of the Post article is incorrect. The article itself references the sunbutter. Yes, they want people to click.
Students in other districts have had food thrown away. From the NYT article linked above:
I think we all agree that children learn better when they are well-nourished. How we accomplish this should be the dialogue, at least to my way of thinking.
Sabaray, I tend to lean against automatically trusting the media. They can inform, but often the reporters themselves are not fully informed.
And yes, how we can ensure all children can be nourished- if we can, as a society. Things is, this particular issue is so layered. Many poor parents are involved with the schools/teachers, as best they can be. It’s not all a matter of poor = uncaring. Or illiterate. But the schools, in the words of one Warwick related quote, can’t sustain underwriting every kid. The state, per other info, could, this year- but not the next two.
36% of the Warwick system is on F/R Lunch. More are likely eligible, there and elsewhere. But there are parents, including not poor, who simply don’t pay their lunch bills. We could conjecture maybe some personal financial struggle. But we don’t know. What worries me is that folks see Chobani as resolving this, when the debt problem contines to grow, the ongoing funds are not there, kind hearted people care, but then think it’s resolved, no need for continued action.
So sure, bravo Chobani. You got great press, too. But then what?
This. When children have full bellies, they learn better. This is proven. When they learn better, they acquire the skills they need for the next grade, and so on. If they have the skills needed upon high-school graduation, they can enter the workforce as a skilled laborer or go on to college. Either way, they will likely earn more money. Higher incomes mean more spending and more taxes into the local community, which benefits that community. So, long-term, a community benefits by ensuring that its children are healthy and learning.
There seems to be this attitude in recent years that “If I don’t benefit, I’m not going to support.” That needs to change. If we as a society are going to prosper in the coming years, we need to put the good of society ahead of personal gain.
And that is why we have a free lunch program for low-income families. Is it reasonable to expect families with incomes above 1.85 of the poverty level to provide that lunch for their children – either through paying a fee for it or sending a lunch with their child? Maybe it’s not. We don’t know individual situations. Or maybe it is. Should we support families by providing a free lunch? Or a universal basic income? Policy is complicated. But I don’t think it is helpful to suggest to anyone that they do not need to be responsible for the debts they incur. Change the policy first.
When my mother was a child all the kids left school at noon, walked home to have lunch and then walked back to school for the afternoon. This is no longer possible for most school kids. We supply transportation, desks, books, teachers, toilet paper, etc without regard to students’ ability to pay for them. Why not lunch?
“Why not lunch?”
Many other countries do and much healthier fare than found in the USA.
Our country isn’t very child-centric.
From the local paper:
Like we said, it was for shaming, not for saving money.
So if I’m a school administrator the lesson I learn from this is it’s worth $70K to go viral with a policy that could be terrible. And if I’m a parent I learn, stiff the district, someone else will pay.
Yrs, I would not expect anyone to pay now. And maybe they should not, and that is ok with me, but likely the school budget was not built around that assumption, so the money is going to have to come from somewhere else. To those making a voluntary donation to your child’s school for food provided, thank you. You are a good role model for your child. I fully expect this to carry forward to other fee based services schools may provide-athletics, band, field trips abroad, whatever. I see the argument that poor kids shouldn’t be kept out of these things. Maybe the school could provide for all or none, that works too.
To be clear, I think if you can pay, you should. I think you also need to make it as simple as possible for people who need assistance to receive it.
In my Virginia district, if you are already receiving public assistance, your case number can be plugged into an online application which auto populates the free and reduced lunch application fields. The application is available in English and Spanish. However, breakfast is free to all elementary students, and our district has a note on the website that you may not even need to complete an application if your household receives SNAP or TANF as of July 1.
I think this is the article from the local paper @austinmshauri was referencing:
https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20190509/warwick-ri-lunch-shaming-sparks-national-outcry
I think teachers and staff have enough to do without having to decide how to allocate donations which is what they would have had to do if the $4000 donation from the small business owner had been accepted. Parents are ultimately responsible for their children but when they refuse, I think as a society we need to be responsible for them.