Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So our elementary school is starting (and this is something that is catching on nationwide) a program to send home a bag of easy to prepare food for children of low income families whose parents do not provide food for their children to eat over the weekend.
I don't get this for a variety of reasons:
1) It's cheap to feed my child as they eat the same thing that I eat. I make a sandwich for me, I make another sandwich for them. Maybe $0.50?
2) But even if parents genuinely can't afford to make food for their child, we have food stamps, women and infant children (maybe that doesn't cover elementary kids?), welfare, unemployment, local food banks, and a variety of other programs that are available to provide assistance to needy families, so I really don't understand how kids can go without food if their parents give a darn.
3) Said above, but we have well stock local food banks that provide weekly (biweekly?) food allotments for families. All the parent has to do is pick up the food at the food bank.
3) If the parents don't give a darn and the children truly go hungry, isn't this child abuse that should be investigated by the child protective services? I mean - feeding my child is not an optional thing in my life.
Based on this, can anyone present a situation where children that go to school should have a bag of food sent home with them for the weekend? Is this anything but a program that allows parents to fail in their basic obligation to their children, and society picks up the slack?
Last edited by tiredtired; 03-25-2016 at 10:55 AM..
So our elementary school is starting (and this is something that is catching on nationwide) a program to send home a bag of easy to prepare food for children of low income families whose parents do not provide food for their children to eat over the weekend.
I don't get this for a variety of reasons:
1) It's cheap to feed my child as they eat the same thing that I eat. I make a sandwich for me, I make another sandwich for them. Maybe $0.50?
2) But even if parents genuinely can't afford to make food for their child, we have food stamps, women and infant children (maybe that doesn't cover elementary kids), welfare, unemployment, local food banks, and a variety of other programs that are available to provide assistance to needy families, so I really don't understand how kids can go without food if their parents give a darn.
3) Said above, but we have well stock local food banks that provide weekly (biweekly?) food allotments for families. All the parent has to do is pick up the food at the food bank.
3) If the parents don't give a darn and the children truly go hungry, isn't this child abuse that should be investigated by the child protective services? I mean - feeding my child is not an optional thing in my life.
Based on this, can anyone present a situation where children that go to school should have a bag of food sent home with them for the weekend? Is this anything but a program that allows parents to fail in their basic obligation to their children, and society picks up the slack?
Here we go again; another thread judging poor people for being poor. This is a different program to help feed hungry schoolchildren, and you're actually complaining about it? I truly don't understand some people's attitudes
Here we go again; another thread judging poor people for being poor. This is a different program to help feed hungry schoolchildren, and you're actually complaining about it? I truly don't understand some people's attitudes
I'm not judging people for being poor. I don't understand how a person can be so poor that they can feed themselves but not their children. (The bags of food are not intended to feed the family, but just the particular child that they are sent home with.)
I'm really curious the reaction of the students who don't get bags of food. One group of students rides home on the bus with a bag of food that is fun (mac and cheese, juice boxes, chocolate milk, etc) and another group does not, knowing their parents give them boring food like 2% milk, baked potatoes, and rice and bean casserole.
In our school system, a local charity provides the food that goes home with kids, in packaging they can open by themselves since some of them have parents who are passed out from being drunk all night or who just never come home.
The bags are distributed discreetly, not handed out in front of the class.
Based on your questions, OP, I would recommend you spend some weekends volunteering at a food bank and local "soup kitchen" equivalent so you can expand your awareness.
Having worked with low income kids for many years, this is a complex issue. So many kids are hungry, and CPS would be literally overwhelmed if they took away every hungry child. They have to weigh the frequency and severity of the issues. I could have 13+ kids a year out of 21, that go hungry at home. These people are not monsters, they are struggling. You can tell the difference between a truly neglected kid and a family that just doesn't have enough food.
Who in the world is saying that they feed themselves but not their children? The school is providing food for the kids because the kids are hungry. That doesn't mean the parents aren't hungry too. I would suspect that most families that really struggle to feed their families feed the kids before they feed themselves.
I don't care how a child gets fed, just happy someone or a program is making sure they are. I begrudge a lot of things, food for children isn't one of them.
So our elementary school is starting (and this is something that is catching on nationwide) a program to send home a bag of easy to prepare food for children of low income families whose parents do not provide food for their children to eat over the weekend.
I don't get this for a variety of reasons:
1) It's cheap to feed my child as they eat the same thing that I eat. I make a sandwich for me, I make another sandwich for them. Maybe $0.50?
2) But even if parents genuinely can't afford to make food for their child, we have food stamps, women and infant children (maybe that doesn't cover elementary kids?), welfare, unemployment, local food banks, and a variety of other programs that are available to provide assistance to needy families, so I really don't understand how kids can go without food if their parents give a darn.
3) Said above, but we have well stock local food banks that provide weekly (biweekly?) food allotments for families. All the parent has to do is pick up the food at the food bank.
3) If the parents don't give a darn and the children truly go hungry, isn't this child abuse that should be investigated by the child protective services? I mean - feeding my child is not an optional thing in my life.
Based on this, can anyone present a situation where children that go to school should have a bag of food sent home with them for the weekend? Is this anything but a program that allows parents to fail in their basic obligation to their children, and society picks up the slack?
Your empathy for impoverished children is truly heartwarming.
In most families, if the kids aren't being fed, that means the parents are going without themselves. Food stamps run out pretty easily. Food banks get overwhelmed.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
