delawareonline | Wilmington AP Article | The News Journal


Sheesh

I would think that parents would be grateful that their kids are being fed for free, instead of whining about it.

like a cold lunch would kill a kid. heck, mine eats a cold lunch everyday and it's not even free and he's not complaining. but then we don't go for the whole entitlement atttitude....we pay so that others can have it though. grr.....

cj/

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I read that and thought it was the dumbest thing. What is going on that those kids can't bring lunch from home??? I agree, school lunch can be pricey and adds up fast -- which is why my DD brings her lunch nearly every day!

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I understand the kids are embarassed, but the parents need to pay for their lunches. If they can't afford it, then they need to fill out the appropiate forms and get it fixed. They can't keep taking money that is needed elsewhere and pay for lunches that someone else needs to be paying for.

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Our Steamboat district ($$$ ski resort area fwiw) had the same problem and complaints from parents when the kids were fed pbj sandwiches and stuff, not hot lunch...hello, send your kid with a sack lunch then or if you can't afford it fill out the paperwork for free lunches -

9NEWS.com | Colorado's Online News Leader | Schools deny hot lunches to students owing money

I don't see the big deal, our school has always done this.

There's been times I forgot to send in lunch money, or the kids left it on the table. They got a pb&j meal and were fine.

When my kids pack a meal usually that's what they take. A sandwich, fruit, and a drink.

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It's sad that the only way to get a parent's attention to pay their child's lunch bill is to feed their child the alternative lunch. Then the parent is so offended that their child wasn't fed a hot lunch for free. All the parent has to do is fill out the paperwork and free lunches will be theirs if they qualify.

I'm sadden for the children having to go thru this. WTH is wrong with parents that would allow their child to be embarrassed in this manner.When hard times hit the families unable to pay for lunch why didn't they call the school or request to reapply for free lunch. At our schools here it states if ANYTHING changes in the income you can reapply at anytime. I'm sure this is standard on other policies as well.I feel for the children I'm sure it has to be embarrassing to them when they get pulled out for the line ( IMHO I think they should already know who will get the cold lunch and direct them to the other side of the lunchroom so their classmates don't see this happening to them).

I don't understand this. At my children's school's they ALL get a cold meal till the application has been processed. Either you send a sack lunch or your child eats the cold lunch the school offers. By the 1st week of school everyone has been approved or told what they have to pay.

Wow. If a kid doesn't pay for his lunch at our school, and is behind on his/her lunch bill, they don't get to eat...period! They aren't given free cheese sandwiches!!!! I've paid for many lunches to make sure some of my students eat...the cheese sandwich is a great idea! Yep, bring your lunch, pay, or take what they give you.

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At our school, they get a PBJ sandwich if they forget their lunch. My son packs 95% of the time because: he doesn't like what they have and he is a slow eater (he talks a lot) so I'm not going to pay $2 for him to waste his lunch at school. We also have free forms for those parents who can not pay. No child knows who can pay and who can't because they have pin numbers that they enter while going through the line. I'm sure if she is a single mother of 2 and can not afford to send money in for her child then she'll qualify for the lunches.

At the elementary school where I work, the kids have a set amount they can be deliquent for ~ I think it's around $10. Once they reach that amount, they are sent up to the office at lunch and someone calls the parents to come right over and either pay up or bring a lunch. The student waits for the parent in the office. This system works for our school. Rarely has this happened to the same student twice. Student bring home a note everytime they get a "credit" lunch warning them of what will happen once they reach the $10 point. Plus, parents are given a notice explaining the process at the beginning of the year that they must sign.

Geesh so the kid has a sandwich, big deal. Going to tell my grandma she abused me all those years when we had pb&j for lunch LOL

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Ours used to get pbj if they were delinquent until the ones who were paid up complained that they wanted pbj instead of what was on the menu. Now at the elementary level ours gets a cheese sandwich and unfortunately there are students who suffer because their parents won't pay. Secondary students are not allowed to charge meals at all and don't get to eat if they don't have money to pay.

Our district does the same, if your account is deliquent, you get a pb and j sandwich. I think it's fair. ....

I don't see the big deal either. Where my DD goes to school, they can "charge" if they forget to bring money, but she mostly brings her lunch because she doesn't like the meals. When I went to school, if you forgot your money you didn't eat. Speaking of cheese sandwiches, I brought one for my lunch everyday last week and this week, but I like cheese sandwiches.

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Ridiculous! Didn't anyone tell these people Free Lunch Doesn't Come With A Menu

People feel a sense of entitlement. If you can't feed your own children the school should have to feed them? While I understand the benefit of a child eating and not being hungry, it isn't my responsibility to feed them.

I wonder if she smokes cigarettes or drinks fancy coffees?

My Mom packed us a lunch almost every single day of our school careers. Other kids were jealous of our cold lunches that my Mom packed so lovingly. We had lettuce and tomatoes on our sandwiches, a piece of fruit and some kind of hoho or dingdong or something. Those memories are sweet to me.

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Interesting, thats my local paper - although the story isn't from around this side of the country.

When I was growing up if you forgot your money you got a PB&J sandwich and some milk, I don't think you even got the fruit (jelly and all you know). If you got over a certain $ behind - it depended. If they knew you were poor - you still got the PB&J. If your parents lived in one of the really expensive yuppy neighborhoods we had in the district - and you were in middle school or higher you got nothing. Or rather you got told to convince a friend to share... They still fed the elementary school kids a PB&J (can't let young kids go without lunch, but a teenager can live through it just fine).

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In our school system the children are not allowed to "charge" anything - if their account is zero they get the PB & J and a carton of milk. Sounds harsh, but I believe it's for the best as the system does not have to send notes trying to collect on a deliquent accounts. Like most of you, when I was growing up and packed my own lunch, it was a sandwich, piece of fruit, and MAYBE a small bag of chips or a ding dong. Sandwich and fruit is perfectly fine!

To buy lunches at our school, you can send in a check or go to lunchmoney.com and add cash. If you don't bring a lunch and don't have $$$ in your lunchmoney account, you get a PB&J lunch. Our PB&J's are uncrustables which I hate and I am sure they are more pricey than some of the crap they serve as hot lunch. I know every kid gets a meal if they don't have one so it's always going to be PB&J lunch, side item and milk if you don't send a lunch with your kid and have no money in your account.

It's people like these parents that suck the life out of the school system. Give me a break! I don't remember my schools as a kid giving lunches to those without. Of coarse, when I was a kid, there wasn't a choice of food. They had hot lunch. No PB&J or hot lunch. I know I would share my home lunch with a girl who never had a lunch. I don't know when that all changed (giving kids lunches)

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It seems that the more that you do for people, the more they take it for granted. Our schools send home a big sack lunch with a few kids on Friday that is food for them to eat over the weekend (local group pays for this not school). Has a granola bar, crackers, juice box, things like that that the child can eat even if no one is home to cook for them. I found one in the trash, almost complete!

Wow! Let's see, you don't send a lunch or money for lunch with your kid to school and your mad that they feed them??? I think here the kids can charge like 2-3 lunches and then after that they get pb&j. I would just be thankfull that I didn't get a call and have to somehow get a lunch to them. That's how it was when I was growing up. . .I think we got one charge, but mostly we just called Mom and she had to figure out a way to bring us a lunch. I remember by the time we were in jr high though. . .your friends would just share something with you out of their lunches if you forgot yours. I don't think we were allowed to charge a lunch anymore and there weren't any "alternative" lunches.

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Oh My!!! I'm having flashbacks of, Oh No....... SANDWICHES!!! there everywhere! Now I'll dream about them! I ate them for lunch for 8 years, now I know where my parents went wrong. It was the PB&J! I'm calling Jerry Springer

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ROTFL frannypooh! We're likely all dysfunctional as a result of our sandwich eating as children....

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I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

I think it's required to offer kids a lunch here - wonder if that's state to state?

I agree - such a sense of entitlement. If this policy had been in place when my mom was packing our lunches, and she got wind that we forgot our sack lunch ant took the "free" one offered at school, she'd have been mortified-- that we had been so irresponsible as to cause the school to shell out a lunch that we should have paid for, ourselves.

Where is that healthy sense of shame? I'm not saying 'humiliation' - I mean shame - enough pride that taking advantage of a system isn't an option...

If a family requires free/reduced lunches, and takes the necessary steps, fills out the forms, etc, that's entirely different. My negative opinion is directed toward those who should be paying, and just aren't.

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I believe in our state (GA) it is illeagal to let a child go without lunch. They get a sandwich also. I am tire of paying for everyones laziness! My kids pack thier lunches because we can not afford a hot lunch. I have a neigbor who gives her kids hot lunches everyday through the reduced meal plans because she lies on the application. They live in a 200k house and have the best of the best. Call the parents and tell them to come to the school and pay the bill or bring them lunch. It would make them rethink thier laziness. Also.... it sounds like the kids are a bit spoiled. Give them a choice. Sandwich or nothing. I think the sandwich will taste pretty good then!

I'm kind of slow about figuring things out sometimes. It took me until this morning to figure out why the cheese sandwich. In our district it's always been PB&J. The industrial PB is recalled...duh!!! I guess all schools have had to resort to cheese sandwiches for the alternative lunch.

The part that really fries me is that the people who are complaining are the the ones who can pay and just don't. If you qualify for the free/reduced lunch then get on the program. If not, then shut up and take care of your own kids.

If you don't like the free lunch then send money or a sack lunch with your kid, problem solved.

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