Just asking, if 68% of the district is free meal qualified, shouldn’t all meals be free for all under federal regs? And isn’t it reasonable to assume the school district reaches out repeatedly to parents prior to taking any action? Have you ever known a school that did not, that actually cut a child off without attempting to call, write, etc more than once? Every school i have ever seen bends over backwards to try to contact parents prior to action like this.
I honestly don’t know. The notes show we are participating in the free breakfast option only per CEP. " Note 1: One or more sites in this School Food Authority (SFA) operate under the USDA Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). The free eligibility for those sites is calculated based on USDA guidance."
I think we’re going in circles. Everyone has their position. There are no easy answers.
Yes – this is exactly what we did at my school when i worked there. The counselors & teachers identified needy kids, packed backpacks of food each weekend discreetly, gave them needed items and made sure they were getting their free school lunch through appropriate paperwork. The cafeteria workers gave a free sandwich lunch to anyone who owed money. If kids felt shame in that (and yes, they did not like to be embarrassed by getting a sandwich) they would pay up; or bring the reduced price lunch cost in change. It seemed to work really well.
I’m very very thankful that the schools will provide free lunch to ANYKID at ANY time. it might not be the hamburger, but it’s food. I don’t think schools need to be shamed on their policies of providing a lunch (fruit/veggies/sandwich/milk) to everyone.
and, even though our school was probably 50/50 low SES; the kids all knew who had cell phones, brand name shoes, nice cars, cool headphones, exotic trips, etc. Sandwich shaming is nothing compared to showing off your name brands; and making others feel bad for what they don’t have. Possessions and clothing are way more apparent than a sandwich.
Social media is generally a poor way to make public policy decisions.
Eligible schools are permitted to make meals free to all students, but they don’t have to.
Again, asking-so the feds pay for all the lunches and the local district keeps the money it collects? I am not suggesting it is improper or illegal, just trying to understand why the district would bother with all the expenses of charging if it does not have to.
I may have missed it as I’m quickly skimming a bunch of posts. Is there any reason parents who have means and don’t pay their bills aren’t fined? We do that for truancy.
Why are the kids punished for the sins of their parents? Why are the kids supposed to “fix” their parents?
The parents can’t be fined because they have not broken any laws. There is a law requiring school attendance, and parents are legally responsible for ensuring their child attends (or make appropriate authorized arrangements). In this instance, if the school wishes to continue to offer a student free food, that is the school’s problem, not the parents’. The parent has already made clear that she/he is not assuming responsibility for debts the kid runs up at school-the parent is not paying for anything the kid takes, so it is up to the school to either limit what the kid takes, or let the kid take anything for free. The options are quite clear, though possibly unpleasing to many.
@roycroftmom Are you sure you’re correct? Parents get a letter from our school letting us know they are responsible for school lunch charges. If the student is eating more than the parent wants to pay for, seems the parent needs to work that out with the student. I know I’ve talked with parents who found out their youngster was eating $6/day worth of food and they took it up with him, not the school.
I would think the only way the parents wouldn’t be responsible is if they informed the school ahead of time that they weren’t going to pay or were only going to pay X amount at which point the student should be limited to only getting X amount - a daily limit on their account.
If they weren’t going to pay and didn’t provide their youngster a lunch from elsewhere I would expect that to be referred to social services.
If a library can fine for overdue books why can’t a school fine for overdue balances? It has nothing to do with laws.
Actually, it has everything to do with laws. When you signed up for a library checkout card,(which is not a right, but a privilege) on the form as a condition of getting thecard you agreed to the fine structure. If kids got a card, the parents signed the form agreeing to pay the charges incurred by the kid. You did not sign such a form for public school as that must be provided by right. If public schools wish to implement a fine structure as a condition of offering meals or charging privilges ( othan than to those on free/reduced price lunch plans, or those applying for si.ilar assistance), that seems like a good idea, and they should require all parents to sign such a form at the beginning of the year or exclude those kids from entering the cafeteria line. Currenty lacking such an agreement, the school currently has no authority to impose a fine. Parents are not responsunle for the debts of their minor children absent written agreement. By law.
I was interested to discover that the large district near us does have a policy for parents to limit their children’s purchases. It seems to me that this would be a pain in the butt to implement. Do you take the food of the kid’s tray? If so what happens to it. I’m really wondering about the cost of labor to carry out charging for meals vs the cost of the meals. Anyway here’s what parents have to do to stop their kids from charging food.
To place meal restrictions on a student account, it must be submitted in writing. Please provide a letter or email to the school cafeteria which includes the date, student name, school name, a description of the restriction(s) and parent/guardian contact information.
Examples of restrictions:
Do not allow a la carte milk purchases
Do not allow student to purchase breakfast
Do not allow student to purchase lunch
Do not allow student to purchase any school meals (breakfast and lunch) and a la carte milk
The problem is parents aren’t paying. What makes anyone think a fine will make they suddenly cough up? And if they can’t bothered to pay, I just doubt they’ll send a note restricting purchases.
Do parents have any responsibility in this? Do we need to be doing more to encourage more stable home lives and parenting classes and societal encouragement to care for your children?
I’m all for public education and support as it benefits all of society to have an educated population.
I also own a business and I donate regularly to one of our local food banks. I chose this particular food bank because they don’t require proof and they offer support and counseling. If someone needs food, by all means it shouldn’t be humiliating. However, my stipulation is that donations are always anonymous. I don’t want any publicity, scrutiny, etc.
I’m a bit weary though that things never seem to go back to the root cause of the situation- parenting.
well, it might help if we didn’t offer incentives for bad parenting. As @lookingforward points out, even implementing a fine system will lead us back to the point we are at now-once fines hit a certain level, one would either curtail what the student is taking, or allow anything to be taken for free. As it appears that, as a society, many on this thread are unwilling to curtail the food options a student chooses, then we are left with allowing anything to be taken for free, and must work that into the school budget in subsequent years. There is no incentive for a parent to pay anything under this system-it may be morally better to do so, but it is economically irrational. If we want to encourage better parenting, we need to stop offering incentives for bad parenting.
I did a bit of research into how other countries handle this. Interestingly, it appears only Sweden, Finland, Estonia and India provide free school lunch to all in compulsory education, though in a few other countries it is provided to a subset of children (England and Wales, children in grades 2 and younger). More countries have income-based free/reduced lunches, including France, Italy, Japan and the US. It appears most countries (including Canada) have no national school meal plan. Those countries do not appear to have a higher rate of parental neglect or child hunger than the US, so apparently parents do feed their kids there.
So if Chobani gave just under $50,000 and two GoFundMe fundraisers raised $103,000, what is going to happen with the excess funds of ~$76,000?
It can offset the future cost of free food provided.
In my state Medicaid recipients have no copays or deductibles. Sounds great except how much it hurts businesses. I’m all for a helping hand but I have a hard time believing that we couldn’t require something, even if it was a dollar. I have noticed the more people get for free the less they value it.
Yes, @roycroftmom , the excess monies can offset the future cost of food provided, but that might not be what happens. I hope there will be an update article, including what the excess monies will be used for.