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All Detroit Schoolkids To Get Free Meals

PerfectStorm

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Good grief.



All Detroit Public Schools students from kindergarten through 12th grade will get free breakfast, lunch and snacks starting this fall under a federal pilot program, the district announced Tuesday.

"One of the primary goals of this program is to eliminate the stigma that students feel when they get a free lunch, as opposed to paying cash," said Mark Schrupp, the district's chief operating officer. "Some students would skip important meals to avoid being identified as low-income. Now, all students will walk through a lunch line and not have to pay. Low-income students will not be easily identifiable and will be less likely to skip meals."

Free Meals for all Detroit Schoolchildren in Fall
 
The horror! Our tax dollars being spent to buy FOOD for CHILDREN!!
 
Uhm...that's what auto-pay accounts were designed to do. Parents who didn't qualify for free lunch programs deposited money into their child's account, and the free-lunch kids had "money" deposited into their accounts. Each kid enters their number at the "checkout" and then carries their plate off to the table. Non-free lunches were tracked and when funds got low e-mails were sent to parents.

Why in the world are we subsizing people who can and should be taking care of their own children all for the sake of the smaller percentage who need the help? There are cheaper, more efficient ways to use tax payer money to cater to the emotional health of poverty-stricken children.
 
There's a cheaper way to get rid of this stigma/bullying.

My school had a system where everyone had a code, free meal or not. You type in your code and depending on your meal status it either draws out of money you've deposited in that account, or says you're under the free meal plan and lets you pass through. No one can tell the difference except you and the servers.

The one-time cost of a system like that would likely be drastically cheaper than giving free meals to everyone.

EDIT: Ah, yes. Like what Tessa said.
 
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Uhm...that's what auto-pay accounts were designed to do. Parents who didn't qualify for free lunch programs deposited money into their child's account, and the free-lunch kids had "money" deposited into their accounts. Each kid enters their number at the "checkout" and then carries their plate off to the table. Non-free lunches were tracked and when funds got low e-mails were sent to parents.

Why in the world are we subsizing people who can and should be taking care of their own children all for the sake of the smaller percentage who need the help? There are cheaper, more efficient ways to use tax payer money to cater to the emotional health of poverty-stricken children.

Exactly. There is no stigma. Kids have no idea who gets a bill sent home and who doesn't. Seem to me to be nothing but an attempt to get more and more people reliant upon the government.
 
The horror! Our tax dollars being spent to buy FOOD for CHILDREN!!

Well, they have to find a way to get rid of all the excess food that was produced by govt subsidies to large corporate farms.
 
guess you didn't see this:

That may be true, but there is still a much cheaper way to get rid of this stigma. And in a city as broke as Detroit, they should be going with the less expensive option that will get the same job done. All kids who qualify could still have free meals, and it would completely get rid of any associated stigma because no one would be able to tell the difference if they're all punching in a code.
 
guess you didn't see this:

Students Receiving Free and Reduced Priced Lunch - Michigan - KIDS COUNT Data Center

In Michigan, most kids in all districts qualify for free lunch (see link above). Michigan has also seen the fastest, most severe loss of jobs, highest unemployment numbers, some of the worst budgetary shortfalls, and extreme funds mismanagement.

That doesn't mean that a state already receiving a large amount of federal aid due to poor state-wide government policy should receive even MORE aid for those who DON'T need it, especially when there are cheaper, more efficient means of handling a fairly small problem.
 
That may be true, but there is still a much cheaper way to get rid of this stigma. And in a city as broke as Detroit, they should be going with the less expensive option that will get the same job done. All kids who qualify could still have free meals, and it would completely get rid of any associated stigma because no one would be able to tell the difference if they're all punching in a code.

Detroit isn't paying this. You are.
 
That may be true, but there is still a much cheaper way to get rid of this stigma. And in a city as broke as Detroit, they should be going with the less expensive option that will get the same job done. All kids who qualify could still have free meals, and it would completely get rid of any associated stigma because no one would be able to tell the difference if they're all punching in a code.

it's part of a federal pilot program. i don't care one way or the other, but it's small change compared to 12 billion a year we give oil companies.
 
it's part of a federal pilot program. i don't care one way or the other, but it's small change compared to 12 billion a year we give oil companies.

And we shouldn't be doing that either. It doesn't negate that this is unnecessarily expensive and the same goal can be accomplished for a lot less.
 
it's part of a federal pilot program. i don't care one way or the other, but it's small change compared to 12 billion a year we give oil companies.

Never met a government program you didn't like eh?
 
i already posted that most kids are eligible for free lunches, but thanks for the quote. tell you what, let's cut the oil co breaks and this program. or are they both small change?
 
You know what - I'd say 'thank god for that' if someone right now was willing to foot the bill for my kid's lunches at school

It costs a lot of money to be self-sufficient.
 
it's part of a federal pilot program. i don't care one way or the other, but it's small change compared to 12 billion a year we give oil companies.

That's an inaccurate number. We aren't "giving" them anything, either. We're just not taking it from them. And, as Harry said, much of that money is through tax breaks every business receives.

Secondly, we spend $79 billion a year on food subsidies (food stamps, WIC, free lunch program). There are roughly 64 million students in elementary, junior high, and high schools. For breakfast, lunch, and a snack, the current payout to each school from the government is $6.18 per child per day. For a year, that's $395,520,000 per year. Alaska receives about twice that amount per child and Hawaii receives about 1.5 times that amount per child. Then there's a seperate program for milk.

In 2007, the program cost us $8.7 billion to run. So if you deduct the $395 million in actual school reimbursement, the government spends $8.35 billion a year administering athe free lunch program. That means the government only spends about 4% of it's total budget directly on the students who need the food. Do you think 4% efficiency is enough justification to spend MORE money on providing free food for children who don't need free food?

You can bring in unrelated policy all day, but let's focus on the issue here.
 
i already posted that most kids are eligible for free lunches, but thanks for the quote. tell you what, let's cut the oil co breaks and this program. or are they both small change?

Great, I'm all for it.
 
I guess that should be a clue, as to not have kids, you can't afford to take care of.

what about people who have kids when they can take of them and then lose their jobs? jeez. or let's say all those kids in detroit have freeloading, able to find work parents who refuse to find or keep employment. don't those kids still need to eat?
 
what about people who have kids when they can take of them and then lose their jobs? jeez. or let's say all those kids in detroit have freeloading, able to find work parents who refuse to find or keep employment. don't those kids still need to eat?

Let's get this out of the way. This isn't about paying for meals for kids whose parents are struggling. It's about paying for meals for parents who are doing fine and lying about why you are doing it.

Hopefully we can continue from there.
 
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