And it’s entirely preventable. We can afford to feed every single student every single day. It doesn’t have to be a brown bag, sad little whitebread and cheese slice sandwich. It can be the same food everyone else eats. In fact, we spend more administering a for-profit food service payment system than we spend on the food. It would be cheaper to just give it away to everyone.
We know this because we did it during COVID. All of the schools closed, and the for-profit food providers were going to lose a lot of money. Sysco and Aramark and US Foods and Sodexo are all big donors to both parties, so we had to bail them out by buying the food. There wasn’t a debate in congress, there wasn’t any tax increase or funding shortfall. The money was just there because they wanted it.
Schools had more food than they knew what to do with. Food banks and public pantries were fully stocked, and school districts were begging parents to come take home some breakfasts and lunches.
It could really just be like that. No registers, no accounting, no shaming poor kids, no threatening demand letters, no lunch cards, no websites. Just feed children, because hungry children don’t learn.
There wasn’t a debate in congress, there wasn’t any tax increase or funding shortfall. The money was just there because they wanted it.
And then states like Missouri refused the money because Republicans hate children.
It’s so much worse than that.
During Covid, the money just went straight to the corporations, and the food went to the schools. With schools back in session, the Conservatives in the federal government put restrictions on the funding, requiring documentstion and forms for all of the students participating in the program. They wanted to make it as onerous and invasive as possible. This administrative red tape disproportionately affected the more densely populated regions, and also gave the conservative states a reason to decline participation. Because if Republicans are going to be forced to help children, by God they’re going to use the statistics against their enemies.
I’m going to be exceedingly gracious and assume that the one person who downvoted your comment (as of the time I’m typing this) accidentally hit the wrong button and didn’t realize it.
I have definitely done that. But I also think I might have a stalker who follows me around and downvotes comments. Especially when I post something stupid, they all come out of the woodwork.
But yes, I agree, I wouldn’t expect “feed children” to be a contentious suggestion.
Please discard your “logic”, in favor of some vitriolic spew from an angry white man (or woman) that I heard on the radio / saw on the TV. /s
Just bc we can, doesn’t mean we should.
We should (no /s), but that doesn’t mean that we will.
Democracy requires the good faith of its voting citizenry, e.g. to edumacate themselves.
Why do people keep asking if we’re okay? No, we are clearly not completely fine. We’re neck-deep in an information war and who will be the ultimate victor is very much undecided.
Frankly, we probably would’ve activated NATO’s Article 5 provision by now, except what good would it do when all of our allies are already under the same sort of attack?
Seriously though, people do not call for civil war in countries that are doing completely fine. That is not a sign of robust civic health.
From Texas. When I was in elementary school circa 2000, we had a running balance that our parents could contribute to via written checks.
My parents were going through a divorce back then, and in the pinging back and forth between my parents houses, it always gave me so much anxiety buying lunch at school. You wouldn’t know if your account could cover what you picked up in the lunch line until you got to the cashier at the end. AND if it couldn’t, they would literally take all of the food you put on your tray and give you a PB&J sandwich.
Having elementary school kids keep up with their balances was tough, and even when I did remember, if I were with my dad, he would refuse to give lunch money to my sister and me because “that’s what child support is for.”
It just sucked all around and made me feel like the smallest human on earth. And I know that this experience here was not unique to me.
Not only are we not OK, we need your help. Please issue sanctions until we stop funding genocides and torturing folks
No. We are not ok. About half of us have centered their lives around fuck you I got mine and let’s be cruel to everyone else.
I think the saddest part is that most of the people pushing these awful ideas did not get theirs. And instead of trying to do something constructive to help themselves and others, they are desperately fighting to make sure that no one else “gets theirs” either.
