I have a friend who is wealthy, well off, and a retired school teacher ..... who still argues that we shouldn't subsidize free food in schools for children.
She argues that it's the parents responsibility to feed their children.
I asked her as a teacher what she would rather prefer .. a classroom where you know every child is not thinking about their hunger ... or a class where you know several kids don't want to be there because they're hungry
She still insisted it's the parents responsibility
Fuck I hate conservatives
Conservitism is the mindset of the selfish
Worse than that, it's the mindset of the short-sighted. These fucking morons wouldn't acknowledge the concept of government spending with a positive ROI even if you waterboarded them with Tang.
They'd rather create a shithole country where they have to cower inside gated communities to protect themselves from the impoverished masses instead of one where everybody is educated and prosperous, even though they themselves would be wealthier in the second case, just because they think everything is a zero-sum game and they can't win unless everybody else loses.
The worst part of their mentality is that their wealth is based on taking advantage of others around them. They and their wealth wouldn't exist if not for the work and effort or coercion or abuse of others around them. They believe that they deserve their wealth because it came to them through their own personal effort alone. It's bad enough that they took advantage of others .... it's far worse to never acknowledge your role in having taken advantage of others.
It's just myopic emotions. "Does this feel good for me right now?" If it's actually good, if it's good long term, if it contradicts a past stance - none of that matters.
It’s the failure of ‘me vs us’
And what was their genius solution to if the child's parents are shit? Remove even more of their support systems and leave them to die?
Sure love when innocent children are forced to pay the consequences of their parent's choices. Very ethical
She still insisted it’s the parents responsibility
Ok... and when the parents fail in that responsibility, we punish the children?
They fail understand the importance. It is sad. And you're spot on. We shouldn't punish children for their parents shortcomings.
I know I don't have to tell you this. But for those that haven't experienced it from childhood.
I'm from a country with free school lunch. And I can assure anyone that it's so much more, than just the food. In the lunch room, everyone is an equal. Our teacher also ate with us. Same place. Same food. Same tables.
Everyone is an equal. It matters. That way you don't get people who grow up thinking they're above the rest.
It transcends into adulthood and your work life. Bosses, CEOs, managers, employees, engineers, sales, janitors, IT, etc. It's not uncommon at all that they all share a table at lunch. As equals.
Your teacher, your boss, they're not Mr. Andersson, Professor Lundqvist, Doctor Hansen. They're just Robin, Emma, Karl, Billy. And I sincerely believe, that all starts in school.
They fail at empathy as well
That's a great image and example
It all goes back to our ancient prehistoric ancestral roots .... if we all share the same food together around the same fire, the stronger our bonds become to one another. The more we share with each other the more connected we become to everyone in our community.
That is a great lesson for any child to learn and understand.
Next time just tell her nope actually Jesus said it’s YOUR responsibility.
It's cause she doesn't have the slightest notion of what it's actually like being poor.
That is the strange part .... she grew up in the 50/60s in northern Ontario from an immigrant Italian family. They had enough to get by in their childhood but they were on edge of being poor ... like everyone else in northern mining/forestry towns back then.
They were part of the post war boom years where everyone had a chance and the rich were held down with enough taxes to fund everything the government did to build a more equitable country.
They got theirs because they thought that it was all done just through their effort and goodness alone and never acknowledging that it was more social government that made it all possible. Now that all those government supports and checks and balances on the rich are removed, no one has a chance and these old boomers still believe that it's all up to individual effort to get by in life.
My mom married a rich guy when I was 11. That got us kicked off the free lunch programs, and the clothing closet.
So I didn’t eat breakfast or lunch from about 7th grade on. I’d get dizzy by the end of the day. It was the worst on days where I already felt a little sick.
I still have severely disordered eating.
Like, it is the parents responsibility. It's something that must happen and it's their job.
If they're not fulfilling their responsibilities you don't just let it not happen though, that's not how a functional society works. You make sure what needs to get done gets done, and then you act like a member of a society and figure out why they're having trouble and what you can do to help.
You might, if you're feeling extra civic minded, offer food to any kid who wants it and leave the concern and extra assistance to people having trouble with home nutrition.
Exactly ... you can judge a little but not to the point of punishing everyone including the children who have no choice in the matter.
And in the long run of civilization, if you help this generation from the failings of the previous generation, then you will have a better chance for a healthier future generation ... who will go on to make a more healthier generation after them.
As an Indigenous Canadian this is what my Elders taught me a long time ago ... we don't just live for the benefit of our current life but for the lives of those who are to come.
We either help the people alive today take a step forward or make them to take steps back and make life worse for those who aren't born yet.
They’re required by law to be there
8+6+ hours. Fucking feed them.school years generally consist of a mandated minimum 900-1100 hours spread out over 160-180 days, with the typical school day being 5.5-6.5 hours. while there is considerable variation from state-to-state, no state 'requires' 8 hours a day.
*But feeding them doesn't benefit me.
*every republicunt ever.
"Fuck you, I've got mine" seems to be the mantra of a shockingly large number of people.
They'll still say they follow Jesus or whatever, lol. Is it illiteracy, arrested mental development or simply hypocrisy? I don't think I've ever been stupid nor evil enough to relate...
It actually does, but then one doesn’t like to offer the utilitarian argument for feeding children. If it has to be debated down at that level, the day is already lost.
Even looking at this selfishly, those kids are going to be adults, members of society. The better we set them up for success, the better our communities can be. This has got to be one of the cheapest investments in fighting crime and poverty.
But have you considered that if the kids aren't starving, they might not yearn for the mines?
This is the problem with everything in the US. We don't settle on anything or finish the argument. We're just stuck in an endless cycle of debate and argument rather than using knowledge and understanding to just answer the fucking question. Like trans rights and abortion is simply about body autonomy, or health insurance and wages is about ensuring a better more stable economy and healthier population. Instead we endlessly argue culture, religion, and price rather than progress and dividends through our actions. It's infuriating but how do we change it?
Eat the rich.
Many of the cyclical culture war issues are largely manufactured by those in power to divide us.
Remove those in power.
Educate people away from hyper individualism.
As for specifics, I'm not totally sure, but this seems a general good place to start.
The mega rich "philanthropists" give a million dollars to some cause and they're hailed as generous. Like Bill Gates.
If he alone paid his taxes, we'd have 100 billion and this wouldn't even be a question: should we feed hungry school kids?
Fuck off with your philanthropy. Pay your fair share for benefitting from the system you helped make, you fucks.
Eat the rich.
We have free school lunches paid for by a new “millionaires tax”!
Indeed. Culture, Politics, Religion, law and justice, end up becoming bad seeds in society because they get twisted to their extremes by the rich and powerful. Especially if you are religious. That bowing to authority in God makes it easier to just trust leadership without questioning that leaderships authority. We've created entire societies willing to fight inwards with each other because it is easier to trust and scapegoat than to question and be free.
While I understand the sentiment, I think it’s a little over the top despairing. Kids DO get free lunch and breakfast where I live. The district and parents banded together to even make sure this continued all throughout COVID.
“Where I live” is the best I can do. I can’t guarantee it gets done everywhere. But I also don’t want to act like nothing ever gets done anywhere. While you’re cursing the darkness, a lot of people are out there lighting candles.
Same here. Free lunches for all …. And there are still conservatives who actually proposed fingerprint readers to prevent any kid from getting extras. What. The. Fuck.
The school to prison pipeline starts with making kids feel hopeless.
There is a reason why Trump and his fellow traitors are investing in third party prison administration.
No. Don't look at actual state prisons ... not those. They are investing in fast setup detention facilities, presumably for ICE. Doesn't Trump seem way too interested in prisons all of a sudden?
Ain't it funny how the factory doors close
Around the time that school doors close
Around the time that a hundred thousand jail cells
Open up to greet you like the reaper
Taxes pay for the building, the heating, the electricity, the teacher salaries, the lunch tables, the trays, the cafeteria staff salaries...but also paying for the food so that all that other expense isn't wasted because the kids aren't paying attention is apparently too far
And that’s what gets me. Taxes pay for so much of that, and adding school lunch is a much smaller investment toward getting successful use out of those expensive resources. Even in utilitarian terms, free school lunch has a high return on investment.
And forget means testing: have you seen how cheap school lunches are per kid? How can you justify means testing and enforcement that will cost much more than just equal treatment no matter each kids financial circumstances
Conservatives are under the influence of demons. If you are religious, then this statement is what it is. 1 Timothy 4:1, which states, "Now the Spirit clearly tells us that in the last times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons." If you are not religious, then take this as a statement of them having "personal demons" or mentally illnesses that make them greedy and make them worship those that are greedy with cult-like devotion.
Most modern conservatives are incurably insane. The purest evil fools others into thinking it is a force of good, it fools others into thinking it is stupid when it is calculating and exact. Conservatives are pure evil, they give nothing but hatred and suffering to others and the world would be a much better place without them in it.
It's just the End of Days... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RKRO_VssJQ
"But if we fund children how are we supposed to fund genocide and the capitalists"
- Trump and the entire Republican party
You can do better: you could build trains or a power grid.
Feeding kids = socialism = communism = bad devil stuff
-pretty much every MAGAT
Giving free stuff to the rich == good!
That's just good Jesus stuff.
This makes me think of a few years ago when a majority of french MPs voted against a subsidized 1€ meal for university students. And we're talking a full three-course meal. The savings in healthcare would have outweighed the cost by so much though…
Yet they will defend a clump of cells that mean nothing till the day they die.
Once they exit the womb, they are not pro life
They are not pro-anything, they are not even "pro-birth" as people often say because they don't allow for live saving procedures that could allow a mother to abort a non viable pregnancy and try again.
They are simply anti-abortion that's where their position starts and ends.
they are not even "pro-birth" as people often say because they don't allow for live saving procedures that could allow a mother to abort a non viable pregnancy and try again.
This is why I call them forced-birthers.
You're gonna have that kid if it kills you.
- republicans
Agree 100%
They don't give a duck about the fetus, they just want to tell women what to do with their bodies.
That's a bit missing the point of why kids are going hungry at all in the first place.
Schools have larger class sizes, a lack of supplies, they've integrated mentally challenged people into standard grades which distrupts the entire class. School lunches is only the tip of the problem.
I agree with this, but also the "muh tax dollars" talking point is full of flaws. We haven't even balanced the budget in almost thirty years. The government is debt spending. It's not even "your money" (whatever that would mean because greenbacks are literally state property printed by the state) because "your money" doesn't cover diddly squat.
They're printing fresh currency, and handing out bank transfers to the people at the top of the economy everyday because "your money" was handed out twice already.
Let the kids eat for free on the fucking government tab, just like you let Israel genocide for free on the government tab.
Not exactly.
The federal government has achieved fiscal balance (even surpluses) in just seven periods since 1776, bringing in enough revenue to cover all of its spending during 1817-21, 1823-36, 1852-57, 1867-73, 1880-93, 1920-30 and 1998-2001. We have also experienced six depressions. They began in 1819, 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893 and 1929.
I'm not calling for a balanced budget. I'm saying "muh tax dollars" is a shit argument.
No large economy has a balanced budget.
Except Germany for some years. Which led to us now having an infrastructure debt of 400 billion.
How do schools manage things like veganism, religious diets, intolerances, allergies etc.? That must be a nightmare!
It is not, all public schools where I live are prepared to handle this, there are nation-wide protocols for it.
My kid has a severe food allergy, and has to carry adrenaline pens with him at all times.
This was documented in the enrollment process, and this "flag" prompts action by a bunch of different people, like the nutritionist that creates the school meal plans so that they can adjust his, and also the meal prep workers, who will avoid contamination when preparing the meals.
The health services that work with the school are also informed, and they include this in school health prep plan, which eventually causes the teacher and helping staff to receive training on how to identify allergic symptoms and how to administer the adrenaline pens, and cautions that need to be taken when food is around.
Do you think that letting kids starve or die because of a food allergy is a better alternative, or what? This is literally what I pay taxes for, so that all kids (not just mine) can learn and have a full belly.
Makes sense, thanks. Not sure why my question was received with no many negative reactions. It is a genuine question of how do schools manage a varying degree of requirements.
I support free school meals, but to just say yes to free school meals without considering the difficulties that go along with it.
Don't think the op was implying anything other than that food is a lot more complicated than it used to be.
I've worked in restaurants with similar issues.
Trying to provide at least 2 vegan options and gluten free options for starters, mains, and desserts without creating an overly bloated menu and decent variety is really a nightmare. Especially when you want to rotate dishes every month or 2.
