With food insecurity affecting over 11% of the country’s children, chances are our school age kids, regardless of their socio-economic status at home, know children in their classrooms, some may be good friends, for whom school lunch is the major meal of the day.

The impersonal 11% figure represents 13 million children.

Food insecurity means that even though there might be food in the home, there is not enough to address the nutritional needs of the members of the household. Either they all get below the minimum requirement regularly, or they take turns not eating as well as the others on a particular rotation day.

This number increased during the pandemic especially as remote learning meant no school lunches and parents were laid off or put on leave until things go better. That meant food not normally used during the day and could go toward an evening meal was now being consumed during the day throwing it all off track. Plus, there were more people home to do the eating.

That is why the U.S. Department of Agriculture extended the Seamless Summer Option, which offers free lunch to children during the summer vacation, so it could offer free meals during the closures of the Covid Pandemic. As a blanket program, it helped reduce some confusion beyond classroom and instruction considerations at sites that had fluctuating in-person coupled with remote learning. Regardless which approach was used or if both were combined, the need to collect payments, submit forms for school lunches, and showing your status ID for payment were eliminated and it also made it easier and more practical to have students eat in various locations, including outside, for social distancing during lunch.

Students got fed regardless of their ability to pay, the annual updating of qualifications, the battle to get parents to get the forms back in, or the students’ misery from being known as the poor kids who can’t afford lunch and possible target of bullies who had suspected but would now know.

That kid is poor.

This was one example where the words of the Preamble to the U.S, Constitution,  “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility  provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America”, had a moment.

Back to school plans may have been put in place, but they are iffy and could be totally revamped after a very short time depending on Covid variations and viral spread, so the free lunch (we know that means taxpayer paid for) program will be running a while longer as we manage control of the virus and, perhaps, can get Congress to effectively deal with child hunger in the richest country in the world.

Except one public school district in Wisconsin that could set a precedent for other districts by ending this program, not because it would cost the school district and local taxpayers more money, but because it feels that first things have to get back to normal, whatever that is now.

When things are back to normal, we will consider who gets to eat.

As the president of the school board, Joseph Como, explained,

“As we get back to whatever you want to believe normal means, we have decisions to make. I would say this is part of normalization.” 

You see, hungry kids are just normal in this country and will remain so until something is done.

A board member thought that parents and students would get so used to actually having food, it would spoil them into expecting unending handouts.

They need to be called up short on their desire for nourishment in spite of their situations and basic needs.

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Students will still be able to apply for free or reduced-price meals under the traditional National School Lunch Program. 

Low-income students who come to school without bringing a lunch expecting the usual sumptuous school cafeteria repast will be subject to the old system of getting a basic sandwich with, perhaps, an apple or something to substitute for a side, and this will signal to everyone in the room that this kid is poor or his family has hit hard times. Their parents and guardians will, of course, receive a bill for payment at a later date, and, as many districts have a requirement that all fees owed the district must be paid prior to the issuance of a diploma, there is that to deal with.

In Wisconsin, as in other states, school districts that participate in the National School Lunch Program are eligible to extend the Seamless Summer Option and this one district chose not to.

Child poverty and its attendant food insecurity in that one district affects up to 13% now, having risen from 9% over the last two years 

Families who would not normally qualify for free or reduced-price meals under normal circumstance may still need assistance for financial hardships from the last 18 months.

Even if they are not motivated by any sense of humanity to keep kids fed and healthy, they could continue the program for selfish reasons as the school district will lose the reimbursement money that comes at a higher rate than the traditional program as a result of leaving the universally federally funded program. That is revenue could be used to create and support school programs.  

As mean spirited as this decision was, especially as it has been decided that feeding children will somehow spoil them, when it comes to similar, less than human actions regarding other things like voting rights and a woman’s right to choose, other Red states might pick up the baton and decide the children in their school districts should go hungry too.

Better that than spoiling them as if they were rich or something.

Meanwhile, one of the problems in the Boston housing market is that expensive condos are being built and are then being bought by parents from all over the world so their sons and daughters will have a nice rent-free place to stay during their college years, and upon their child’s graduation they can then either sell it at a profit, or use it as rental property so other rich parents can house their kids in style, kids who were not spoiled by getting lunch at school.

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