Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

All praise to the lunch ladies

bittersoutherner.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 203 posts

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#21

Post by 64756salad638 »

michaelrpeskin wrote: post #11
Coffeewine wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pertaining to that observation, I really liked this section: > In 2022, California became the first of a half dozen or so states to offer free school meals to all students, regardless of family income. Dillard supports free meals for all students with an emphatic, “Yes, yes, yes!” Food should not be based on income, she says: “It should be part of the school day. Your transportation is of no charge to students. Schoo…

We did "free" lunch for all here a couple of years ago. The idea is great, execution is terrible. You can't get a la carte free, only the full "FDA approved" lunch is free. So if you forget a drink, or just want to add a snack to your own packed lunch, you go get the whole thing and throw everything else away. The elementary school tried adding the "share table" where you can put anything you don't want so that someo…

If you wouldn’t mind sharing, what school district was this?

I’m curious to research and learn more! What accounts for the budget overrun? Are there stats on how many free meals were taken per student (especially if this was broken down on a per-day basis, this could back up the “pizza” explanation)?

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#22

Post by klooney »

cpursley wrote: post #16

Having a school lunch in a "poor" former eastern block country as a guest was really eye opening. It was actually good, fresh made borscht, veg dishes that tasted good (wasn't steamed)! Like, I would order and enjoy it at a restaurant level no-bad. Who knew that was even possible? From what I can tell, a non-crappy school lunch is the norm all over Europe. Why can't America have that?

You can't afford to have people cook food here, just reheat it.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#23

Post by gausswho »

Baeocystin wrote: post #20

I used to get the poor kid's meal when I was very young. They made us stand as a group aside in a line and let all the other kids get their full-sized meals first, then would give us our half-sized shitty sandwich after everyone else walked passed and stared at us. Fuck every single adult involved in that kind of cruelty. That being said- the bit of light in this story is the lunch ladies who went out of their ways t…

Whoa that is very different than my experience decades ago. Whether your lunch was free, discounted, or full price, that happened at the cashier. Everyone waited in the same line. Your experience is way too early to introduce kids to how bad capitalism. Let them dream!

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#24

Post by Spivak »

michaelrpeskin wrote: post #11
Coffeewine wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pertaining to that observation, I really liked this section: > In 2022, California became the first of a half dozen or so states to offer free school meals to all students, regardless of family income. Dillard supports free meals for all students with an emphatic, “Yes, yes, yes!” Food should not be based on income, she says: “It should be part of the school day. Your transportation is of no charge to students. Schoo…

We did "free" lunch for all here a couple of years ago. The idea is great, execution is terrible. You can't get a la carte free, only the full "FDA approved" lunch is free. So if you forget a drink, or just want to add a snack to your own packed lunch, you go get the whole thing and throw everything else away. The elementary school tried adding the "share table" where you can put anything you don't want so that someo…

I mean this is the nanny state at its best. Getting in the way of progress because you refuse to meet people, in this case kids, where they actually are. The challenge should be minimizing the amount of waste—cook literally anything where the kids will clean their plates then try to nudge toward healthier options while keeping your waste % low. Let them take any subset of the lunch as they please, prune dishes kids either don't take or leave behind until you have a menu.

Mind boggling how getting the kids actually fed is lower on the priority list than making sure they eat the "right" things.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#25

Post by ryandrake »

jimbokun wrote: post #4

Indeed. Occasionally I will see posted the beautiful school lunches given to children in many European countries. Nutritious, appetizing, made from scratch. These lunch ladies are the ones fighting to be allowed to do the same things for the children in their communities in the USA. But getting ham strung by the whims of federal politics and the crippling fear that someone somewhere might be given something for free…

"Someone somewhere might be given something they don't need."

Sad and incredible how much of US politics is summed up with just that one statement.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#26

Post by babyshake »

ryandrake wrote: post #25
jimbokun wrote: post #4

Indeed. Occasionally I will see posted the beautiful school lunches given to children in many European countries. Nutritious, appetizing, made from scratch. These lunch ladies are the ones fighting to be allowed to do the same things for the children in their communities in the USA. But getting ham strung by the whims of federal politics and the crippling fear that someone somewhere might be given something for free…

"Someone somewhere might be given something they don't need." Sad and incredible how much of US politics is summed up with just that one statement.

The rhetoric you see in some places about how social assistance is used on hair weaves says something about the underlying reasons for much of this concern.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#27

Post by ryandrake »

gausswho wrote: post #23
Baeocystin wrote: post #20

I used to get the poor kid's meal when I was very young. They made us stand as a group aside in a line and let all the other kids get their full-sized meals first, then would give us our half-sized shitty sandwich after everyone else walked passed and stared at us. Fuck every single adult involved in that kind of cruelty. That being said- the bit of light in this story is the lunch ladies who went out of their ways t…

Whoa that is very different than my experience decades ago. Whether your lunch was free, discounted, or full price, that happened at the cashier. Everyone waited in the same line. Your experience is way too early to introduce kids to how bad capitalism. Let them dream!

Implementation of free and reduced-cost lunches varies considerably across the US states. In many places, it's discreet and private, but also in many places, the process is deliberately designed to 1. call attention to and shame people, and 2. make it difficult to use and easy to be denied.

And yes, you can probably easily guess which kinds of places focus on the cruelty, and which kinds of places focus on the helping.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#28

Post by jplrssn »

klooney wrote: post #22
cpursley wrote: post #16

Having a school lunch in a "poor" former eastern block country as a guest was really eye opening. It was actually good, fresh made borscht, veg dishes that tasted good (wasn't steamed)! Like, I would order and enjoy it at a restaurant level no-bad. Who knew that was even possible? From what I can tell, a non-crappy school lunch is the norm all over Europe. Why can't America have that?

You can't afford to have people cook food here, just reheat it.

"can't afford" in this case is a choice to spend the absolute minimum possible on school lunches.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#29

Post by roenxi »

ryandrake wrote: post #25
jimbokun wrote: post #4

Indeed. Occasionally I will see posted the beautiful school lunches given to children in many European countries. Nutritious, appetizing, made from scratch. These lunch ladies are the ones fighting to be allowed to do the same things for the children in their communities in the USA. But getting ham strung by the whims of federal politics and the crippling fear that someone somewhere might be given something for free…

"Someone somewhere might be given something they don't need." Sad and incredible how much of US politics is summed up with just that one statement.

If the political process gives unnecessarily, then it has also taken something from someone unnecessarily. So while it is a very accurate description of politics it doesn't really surface why that is at the root. The whole question being debated is what is necessary. That is what people are arguing over - are the wealth transfers actually required.

Eg, "oh no, the billionaires might get enormous handouts that they don't need!" is a rallying cry that should get people moving. If the option is there they will take it. If the idea that there doesn't need to be an accounting of why takes hold that is exactly where the US Congress will take it. And, in fairness, that mindset did take hold and the handouts to the wealthy is what then happened.

Re: All praise to the lunch ladies

#30

Post by rkomorn »

jimbokun wrote: post #4

Indeed. Occasionally I will see posted the beautiful school lunches given to children in many European countries. Nutritious, appetizing, made from scratch. These lunch ladies are the ones fighting to be allowed to do the same things for the children in their communities in the USA. But getting ham strung by the whims of federal politics and the crippling fear that someone somewhere might be given something for free…

> Occasionally I will see posted the beautiful school lunches given to children in many European countries. Nutritious, appetizing, made from scratch.

Man, comments like these compared to my 10+ school years in France really make me wonder wtf happened in my 3 different schools' cafeterias.

My 3 and change years in 2 US schools definitely had tastier food.

IDK if my expectations of food in France (my home country) were just higher and harder to meet. I don't think that was the case.

Post reply on HN