Congress eliminates free food in schools
This article hit an emotional note for me. This section made me want to cry:
“Lynnea Hawkins relied on free school meals for her son. He lived in northern Maine with his father, who often didn’t have enough money, and there were times when her son called to tell her, “Mom, there’s no food in the house,” she told me when I interviewed her for Early Learning Nation. Knowing he would at least get breakfast and lunch at school at no cost “took a little of the stress off.” But it was a burden on her son, who had to hand the paperwork proving that his family qualified to his teacher in front of all of his classmates. Being on free school lunch was “another thing for them to torment him with,” Ms. Hawkins said. That stigma melted away after Congress passed legislation in early 2020 allowing the Department of Agriculture to issue waivers giving schools the ability to give free meals to all students, regardless of income. Suddenly, for two years, nearly all children in America could get free school breakfast and lunch, no matter their family’s income.”[1]
#Stigma
Growing up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, my dad’s economic situation was often tenuous. Between company lay-offs, plant closings, and unemployment expiring, our family qualified for “reduced lunch” cards in junior high. Parents who wanted their children to eat at school but not pack a lunch could purchase lunch cards each week which were hole-punched each time a meal was acquired. The full price lunch cards were green or blue. Reduced lunch cards were pink. So everyone in line knew who was on the subsidized lunches and thus, technically, poor.
Kids could pack lunches. But often those with reduced or free lunch access don’t have the extra food in the house to pack a lunch to school. My dad’s widow told me once how she ran into my dad out and about and found out he had not eaten in a couple days because his unemployment checks had run out and he was saving the food in the house for his three children.
Dad didn’t really hit solid economic security until he got a job at the local papermill. Because paper was less susceptible to the downturns in other industries and the mill had to run constantly 24–7–365 (only shutting down for Christmas for two days), he was not only able to work steady until retirement, but build up income. Unfortunately, that build up was at the expense of time. He often worked overtime nearly every day from four to eight additional hours!
It is well documented that children perform and learn better in school when they are not hungry. They also perform and learn better when not stigmatized, bullied or otherwise deemed less than others in their classrooms.[3][4]
Americans keep talking about how we are the greatest nation. Yet we score only 78 out of 100 for food security, well below Finland #1 at 83.7), Ireland, Norway, France and the Netherlands for example.[2]
Congress let expire provisions in law which paid for not only school lunches, but also breakfast.
One mother in the NYTimes article [1] is quoted as saying “I can’t imagine who would think it’s OK to take food away from kids.”
Congress can.
[1]
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/opinion/congress-child-tax-credit-universal-school-meals.html
[4]
https://frac.org/wp-content/uploads/School-Meals-are-Essential-Health-and-Learning_FNL.pdf
