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I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

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Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#811

Post by sumeno »

rufus_foreman wrote: post #202
mproud wrote: post #63

I love living in Minnesota. Walz passed the Free Meals for School Kids Program[^1] at my elementary school, no less! about two years ago. I’m happy that other states are finally realizing, gee, this is such a straightforward issue we could actually solve. [^1] https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/FNS/SNP/free/

>> gee, this is such a straightforward issue we could actually solve Shifting the cost from the parents who had the kids onto the taxpayers is not solving the problem. It's making people who didn't cause the problem subsidize the people who did cause the problem. That's not solving the problem. It's making sure there will be more problems.

You know who else didn't cause the problem? The kids that you want to starve

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#812

Post by asdf6969 »

In Canada we don’t have school lunches and I’ve always found the concept ridiculous. Sending a lunch can be as simple as a sandwich with some fruit and veggies on the side. It’s cheap and takes about 5 minutes to make. Some people are trying to introduce school lunches now even though we already have a child benefit program which gives parents money specifically for this. To me it seems like it’s actually just a way to cover up the fact that millions of parents are child abusers who don’t feed their kids. I just can’t get around the idea that we’re enabling neglect.

Very few schools (if any) have a cafeteria that serves food. Everyone brings their lunch and it works well.

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#813

Post by yongjik »

roughly wrote: post #294
yongjik wrote: post #284

South Korea started dabbling in free school lunches around 2001 - when a few schools started it. It gained momentum, and then it became a huge debate in 2011, when Seoul's mayor somehow decided he hated free lunches so much that he arranged a referendum, and said he would quit if people didn't agree with him on the matter. He did quit. Fast forward to 2025, and now free school lunches are nearly ubiquitous. Once peop…

> Seoul's mayor somehow decided he hated free lunches so much that he arranged a referendum, and said he would quit if people didn't agree with him on the matter. He did quit. It’s nice when things work out.

The final twist is... the mayor somehow came back from political suicide, and he's Seoul's mayor again (since 2021).

At least he stopped complaining about school lunch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#814

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

ta1243 wrote: post #646
0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #613

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll see. "Trump wants U.S., China and Russia to cut military spending in half" https://www.axios.com/2025/02/13/trump-china-russia-military...

Yet he is unwilling to cut a single cent, indeed there's a 13% increase for defense spending https://www.airandspaceforces.com/trump-proposes-1-trillion-...

Well hopefully he at least pulls out of NATO to give subsequent presidents room to decrease spending.

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#815

Post by socalgal2 »

overfeed wrote: post #381
socalgal2 wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can want kids to be fed and fully believe that the government giving out free meal to all kids will eventually lead to kids not being feed. I can think of lots of arguments Budgets might be cut directly, so can not feed some percent, budgets might be cut indirectly (less tax revenue). Giving out free food might make people feel entitled and less likely to learn to be self sufficient. The "give a man a fish he eat…

> Giving out free food might make people feel entitled and less likely to learn to be self sufficient To be clear, the subject is still children, right? Refusing to feed children to "teach" them self-sufficiency is, IMO, right up there with a non-ironic "the children yearn for the mines". What could a self-sufficient 6th-grader even do for money? Steal baby food and small electronics from Target for fencing?

No, the subject is society at large. Save kids today, get a society that can't function in the future, more kids die

Asked ChatGPT for examples: https://markdownpastebin.com/?id=86c19b00a4ce4ff1aa3d2d5cb47...

Note, I'm not saything this is how it is. Nor am I saying I believe free school lunches are bad. I'm saying the position that they are bad is a valid defendable position to take.

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#816

Post by Capricorn2481 »

lucideng wrote: post #684
PaulRobinson wrote: post #581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This "cultural toll" you talk of, is just another form of conformist behaviour that all societies have in different forms. Some countries have class/caste strata, others have a laissez-faire attitude to expectations in general, others have a rigid societal code, others appear to be less so but the moment you go near guns, abortion or taxation the societal codes and hierarchy spring into action and snap shut around th…

"...seems to be leading to a fractured partisan nation where everyone hates anyone who even slightly disagrees with them." This, 100x times over. The cultural toll of 'conformity' sounds bad until you realize it's a construct enabling everyone to 'play nice' in the general sense and work towards a greater good, collectively. We are losing that conformity. The average US citizen person is socially crippled by their ou…

> It used to be ok to disagree, have intelligent debate, vote on it, and lose

You are operating under a model that every view of the world is equally valid, moral, and unworthy of emotion. That is not where we are as a country. People have made decisions to actively harm people I love, and they cheer it on to my face. This is not an emotion, it's a fact.

I'm a white man. I am polite to my friends and family, and I am good at getting people to share what they really think. I have family all over the country. They talk a lot like you in public, decrying a vague sense of union we used to have in a fictional time of American history. But they whisper a different tune to me in private. I have heard some absolutely vile beliefs from people who used to bounce me on their knee. I don't speak to them anymore. Not because I'm in an echo chamber, but because I cannot reconcile or stomach the things I know about them. My extended family believes others should bleed so they don't have to scuff, and I believe this reflects a large portion of the country.

You have it completely backwards. It's not that we are so angry with each other that we can't establish a cultural toll, it's that much of the country never wanted to pay this toll, and that's what makes the rest of us angry. We cannot live collectively without sacrifice, but many refuse to. The many debates regarding this article is evidence of that.

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#817

Post by asdf6969 »

kerkeslager wrote: post #290
camdenreslink wrote: post #259

New York State just passed universal free lunch and breakfast for public school students. Of all the things that we spend our tax dollars on, this feels like a no brainer. Making sure children are fed should be at the top of the list.

Stuff like this seems like such a dividing line to me. Like, in theory when people believe things that are morally wrong, I want to reach out to them with compassion and respect and try to gently persuade them to my side because we're all, in theory, on the same side. But if you don't want kids to be fed, I really am not sure we're actually on the same side any more and I really am not sure what to do with that.

[flagged]

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#818

Post by asdf6969 »

mylesp wrote: post #216

As an Australian, I find it crazy that getting food from a cafeteria at school is the norm in the US. In Australia you bring food from home 90% of the time. On special occasions or every now and then you order lunch from the canteen. It seems almost against American individualism to have a communal meal where everyone is served up the same food and sit indoors in a dining hall. Maybe it is just strange to me but I ca…

Same in Canada. I think this is just another one of those things like voter ID where Americans have been tricked into believing something many other countries do is impossible and evil.

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#819

Post by asdf6969 »

mtnGoat wrote: post #343

As someone who experienced this first hand growing up. I consider how someone feels about free school lunch, a basic test of their humanity. If you think kids should go hungry or be embarrassed at school because of their parents finances… we can’t be friends, nor acquaintances. IMHO, you are subhuman at that point and not worth my time. My dad believed that because he paid taxes he shouldn’t have to pay the school to…

Do you think Canadians are subhuman? We don’t do this and there’s no issue. The school is not a replacement for bad parenting. I bet you’re the type of person who still believes in food deserts.

Re: I decided to pay off a school’s lunch debt

#820

Post by autoexec »

giantg2 wrote: post #490
freehorse wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's also in the heart of the issue, having arbitrary thresholds and obscure bureaucracy here makes it easier also to restrict or even close down such a subsidised program, which can be harder when a permanent program of free school lunches has been established.

The NSLP has been around for more than 50 years. It doesn't seem to be going anywhere. It serves about 4.5 billion lunches annually with 70% of them being free or reduced. It seems there isn't a problem here.

As it stands today, making sure that all children who need them are provided with healthy school lunches is far from a solved problem.

There are problems and inefficiencies in the NSLP. Making free lunches available to every child would solve some of them. That's unlikely to happen any time soon though. The current administration has repeatedly threatened and chipped away at the program while also making it harder to provide safe and healthy food to the children who are currently enrolled.

At the rate things are going I wouldn't have so much faith that the program will continue or, if it is to continue, that it wont continue to be made worse and leave an increasing number of children going hungry.

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