Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
In this age of high unemployment rates and a seriously weak economy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is worried about an even more important issue: the stigma associated with government food programs. So the bureaucrats there came up with a brilliant and realistic plan.
To avoid making the kids who receive free breakfast and lunch feel in any way bad about their situation (and thereby hope to improve their lot as they age), now all U.S. children will be eligible to receive free breakfast, lunch and snacks, regardless of their family income! This new program -- enacted under an initiative from President Obama -- is being tested in three states this year and will be offered to all states beginning in 2014. Great idea, President Obama!
Here's a story in the Detroit Free Press about the Detroit roll-out of the program. The story doesn't mention how much the program costs or who will pay for it. It doesn't mention any negative consequences of having the government take over the parental role of feeding one's children. It doesn't mention whether the Ag department has a plan to avoid London-style riots in the future. I'm sure it will work out fine!
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Comments:
Dec '10
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
And the next step will obviously be banning lunches from home. Why is it that this doesn't surprise me in the least?
Jul '10
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
looking.... looking.... looking....
Nope. I don't see anything in The Constitution 'bout feeding people. Maybe it's in that Commerce Clause?
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
Soon we will be able to do without the family altogether. With a bastardy rate of 40% we are well on our way.
Sep '10
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
This is a feature, not a bug.
Ben Franklin figured it out centuries ago. But I guess he just didn't have enough Hope in the ability of the government to Change human nature.
Jan '11
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
How can Obama claim we are a AAA country and always will be a AAA country while simultaneously asserting that families are incapable of adequately feeding their children?
Jun '10
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
Mark Belling Fan
This is a feature, not a bug.
Ben Franklin figured it out centuries ago. But I guess he just didn't have enough Hope in the ability of the government to Change human nature. · Aug 18 at 7:53am
I agree that stigma is a powerful motivator. When I was a kid in Hudson County, NJ, I knew Cuban immigrants on food stamps who were deeply ashamed. These were the people floating over on homemade rafts. Hardly slackers by anyone's definition. Not one family stayed on assistance for long. Their kids used that feeling of shame as motivation to achieve.
Anyway, even if you agreed with Obama that stigma must be eliminated, this plan is unnecessary. It has already been done. These free school lunches are paid for with debit type cards -- the same ones that the paying students use to load money into their accounts. So clearly the motivation is more government control, not avoiding stigma!
Jul '10
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
Another incursion into areas the federal government is manifestly unfit to manage. Bumbling Barry breaks new ground in the field of federal incompetence.
Sep '10
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
"I want a new pony."
Jul '11
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
Not sure if you were being ironic with your comment ... but for those who may have been unaware, Chicago is way ahead of you:
Chicago School Bans Some Lunches From School
Nov '10
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
This is a little off topic, but what meal programs exist in the various areas of Ricochet's readership?
Up here, for example, the breakfast programs in the schools are free and open to all, and they have been for awhile. A pamphlet on the guidelines is here. They receive a mix of provincial, school board, and private funding, and are largely staffed by volunteers.
Lunch is a bit different, as children have an hour and a half break, and traditionally went home. That's not always possible, so schools now offer supervision (by volunteers and staff) during that period; though the kids are expected to bring their own meals. There were also things like fruits, cheese, rolls & crackers, and juice made available, though unofficially, by volunteers. In the junior high, that time is also used for extracurricular activies taught by volunteers (for example, I gave basic drawing instruction, which was quite enjoyable).
Jun '10
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
In my town a very small % of the students qualify for free or reduced cost lunch. The kids on the program are indistinguishable frrom paying kids because a debit type card is used.
My kids always took their own lunch,and they've attended the town publics, a neighborhood Catholic grammar school, and an expensive, competitive regional Catholic H.S. All had really nasty food, regardless of how expensive it was. As my son used to say, 'the pizza is cold and the salad is hot." I often volunteered as a lunch helper at the local Catholic grammar school and I think I was the only person who washed her hands. My suggestion that we wash the lettuce was looked upon as nutty. I also insisted crates of milk that were left out in the sun for hours be thrown away & some people felt I was being too cautious.
Pack a lunch guys! Some of those school kitchens are really, really scary. And would any of you eat those dreadful canned peas and carrots in Molly's picture?
Apr '11
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
I have a lot of sympathy for trying to make kids in school not standout too much or creating a situation where some students can be singled out. After all kids are rather cruel and stupid. Though I think some stiff discipline at the schools would override any of these tendencies. Which is what the real issue is.
The government is fearful that its food aid to kids who could use it will lead to them being picked on by the non-needy kids, leading to self esteem issues. A plausible scenario. So they plan to hide the aid from the kids by giving it to all. Why not use it as a teaching moment for the non-needy kids to not make fun of the less fortunate or affluent? Why hide the truth from them? Kids should be taught to treat everyone fairly and to be generous to those less fortunate. How can you do that if you raise them in an environment insulated from reality?
Your just postponing the truth of reality from all these kids and it will be harder to shape them when they are older.
Dec '10
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
Here, we already have such a process; they actually make it more complicated to pay for your kids' meals, than to hand in forms filled out for free meals; forms are easy, cash or checks are difficult and they grimmace when you insist upon paying for the meals. They do this, since they qualify for more of some kind of aid, depending upon how many students qualify for the meals assistance.
It's the same grimmace I get when I vote and request a Republican ballot in primaries.
Jul '10
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
Valiuth
The government is fearful that its food aid to kids who could use it will lead to them being picked on by the non-needy kids, leading to self esteem issues.
· Aug 18 at 1:18pm
That's okay, though. The non-needy kids would be teaching the needy kids how to pick on the non-needy kids later on when the non-needies are still living with their Parents in their thirties.
Oct '10
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
The new cause of truancy, school food.
Sep '10
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
"will be offered to all states beginning in 2014."
or not, we hope.
May '10
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
Meanwhile, the parents who sacrifice to send their kids to private school, or homeschool them are again paying twice. Once to provide a free breakfast and lunch for the government school kids, then again to provide breakfast and lunch for their own.
When we were homeschooling our kids I worked it out and determined that we were feeding our own kids for much lower meal per child cost than the government spent on the government school kids meal per child.
We spent less (because in fact had less money to spend) on food for a family of seven (two adults, five children), than a family of seven would get in food stamps.
Aug '11
Re: Obama's Free Lunch Plan To Destroy Stigma (And Taxpayers)
Cobalt Blue
Not sure if you were being ironic with your comment ... but for those who may have been unaware, Chicago is way ahead of you:
Chicago School Bans Some Lunches From School · Aug 18 at 9:03am
Thanks! I'd remembered a story about schools banning bag lunches. My favorite part is the kids themselves rebelling against such silly rules. But the assumptions here are startling. They assume that parents will send their kids to school with a can of cola and cheetos. They assume the worst. Granted, some parents actually may do that. But to say "Because some parents might, then we must outlaw all school lunches" is nonsense.
They also assume that what they serve is so much more nutritious than anything a kid could bring from home. (I always brought a lunch because what they served us was terrible!)
So many rules and regulations, particularly in our halls of education, are based on what "might" happen. "Might" is a terribly misused word.
Edited on August 19, 2011 at 6:48am