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If a parent isn’t motivated enough to manage their child’s nutritional needs it’s just as well that they push them into the arms of government assistance to do it for them. We already have an enormous population of young people who believe that food is something handed to you by the government, not something you buy and pay for in a store. It’s all part of the overall education teaching our children that government, and not personal responsibility, is the path to living.
In my area, they have been delivering two meals a day via school bus all summer long to kids. Additionally, there is a plethora of food service programs, both cooked and bulk food. The local veterans organization delivers food to those who are unable to get it themselves and there are people delivering meals to the hotels where they have housed the homeless population. When the mandatory social distancing order went into place, one of the local food programs switched from cafeteria-style hot meals to a drive through model (rain or shine, they were out there passing out food.)
And that's great. But we don't have a national level response. It is state-based or school district-based (regional). And in some ways, that makes sense.
I'm disappointed in my state. They bowed to the pressure from Pence and Trump. If kids in poverty want that benefit again, they have to show up to school - to hell with the risk coronavirus poses to them. And then when their parents or grandparents show up at the ER and can't pay, we will also be blaming them. Go figure.
We don't even readily know what "food welfare" (WIC, SNAP, whatever) benefits are provided.
Just at the Fed level, you can get $450/mo for a family of 4. That's not much -
$1.25/person/3 meals a day.
If in school, those kids will get 2 meals/day
Where I am, we have "Backpack Buddies" which sends a kid home each weekend with more than enough for them to eat (usually 2-3 people).
That's just trying to understand the ACTUAL programs that benefit those eligible.
That's not the problem.
The problem is the Ilhan Omar's of the country/world that - rather than determining the need - would rather institute a one-size-fits-all-and-the-government-makes-you-participate "solution".
In America, we're at ~1/3 children who get free and reduced lunch. So they want a program to apply to ALL children, with the only plausible explanation they don't want the 1/3 to be stigmatized. They want to effectively spend 3x what's needed for this.
Now, I'm sure there are some ***hole parents who teach their kids to look down their nose at the "poor kids". They've got to be a VERY small %. My kids have spent a combined 23 years in public school, in high-income schools (with low-income kids assigned) and never is there any stigma. All the kids know is some go through the line and have a card (and ALL kids have a card/PIN #).
That's a microcosm for our government. Fiscally irresponsible and making poor choices in planning.
Also, funny how their family could be planning to have less kids, but a certain set of people want to deny that ability. That is just rich.
AFAIK, it's only the Catholics who are opposed to "birth control". I've not heard of any significant opposition to government health centers providing needy women with "birth control" for free. "BC" is in quotes because we really should say "pregnancy control", yes?
When i was little, my mom packed a sandwich, chips, and a drink in my lunch box.
Are parents so poor that they cannot even pack a cheap lunch anymore?
You got chips? My mother put in a banana....and told me it was dessert.
But to your point: true. You can buy a loaf of sliced bread for $3, a few cans of tuna for another $3, a package of turkey slices for another $4, and a big bag of chips for $2.50. For $12 you have 8 - 10 lunches, at least. Parents can’t use their food stamps for $10 worth of school lunches?
Beyond that, there’s a lot of redundancy. Where I live, they have shelters and motels that provide housing to poor families, and meals are served. Yet they also get food stamps, and they ALSO get free lunch for their kids via the school program. There was an article in our paper following such a family, and the mother of the three kids (fathers out of the picture), said that she often didn’t like what they served in the dining room, so she used her food stamps to buy groceries. Sometimes, she said, she just took the cash she got and went to a fast-food place. Thus, three options are provided for a single meal: eat what is served in the dining room, use your food stamps to buy a meal, or use the cash you’re given to go some joint.
Don't forget, there are lots of Illegal Alien kids in our public school who receive these free meals and depend on them. All thanks to the generous involuntary homeowners and renters who pick up the tab via mandatory high property tax, which most of it, goes to the school district. Property tax should not support schools, especially when one doesn't have kids. So, yeah, again, we taxpayers get screwed. Especially those single individuals with no kids. Not a fan of supporting other children if their own parents cant do it themselves.
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