https://www.washingtonpost.com/educatio ... l-program/A school district opted out of a free meals program, saying students could ‘become spoiled’
In June, the board voted to forgo the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Food and Nutrition Service’s extension of the Seamless Summer Option, a program to provide free meals to all students through June 30, 2022, because the pandemic was expected to burden some children’s nutrition.
“The covid-19 public health and economic crisis has highlighted the essential role that school meals play in addressing childhood hunger,” Alan Shannon, a spokesman for the Food and Nutrition Service, said in an email to The Washington Post. He highlighted the universal program’s lack of application as a victory for families and for local authorities who otherwise would be tasked with processing them.
Karin Rajnicek, a school board member, said the free program made it easy for families to “become spoiled.” Darren Clark, assistant superintendent for business services, said there could be a “slow addiction” to the service.
Other members noted students had forgone meals funded by the National School Lunch Program in previous years. Jess Huinker, an executive assistant for the district, said she had noticed that some did not eat during school because they either did not qualify for free or reduced-price options or because their parents did not submit applications.
“We have seen kids that don’t eat,” she said.
The discussion underscores a decades-old debate in public economics, said Ioana Marinescu, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. The importance people place on “work and pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps,” she said, fuels concerns that are often exaggerated.
My understanding is that the districts are automatically enrolled in this program, the board had to actually do more work to get out of it and remove free lunch from their children.
To prevent them from getting spoiled.
By feeding them once a day.
Can't have those children expecting they are going to get food, they'll get spoiled.