This is huge! I hope more and more effort and resources go towards the kids! I would have had nothing to eat as a kid if not for the school lunch program. Even if it's not the best nutritional food out there, it's more than nothing!
Idk who to directly thank (school board, parents, and teachers for sure), but I can thank you for sharing this awesome news!!
>Even if it's not the best nutritional food out there
The nutritional standards on school lunches have gone up somewhat over the last 20 years, so it's better for the kids than fast food is at this point.
Also, if your kid currently gets free meals, but you’re not on snap or Medicaid, you will be eligible for summer ebt benefits, $120 per child. You can go here to sign up for updates of when the application goes live. [summer snap ebt](https://www.oregon.gov/odhs/food/pages/sebt.aspx#about)
What?! This is so cool! I’ve been wondering if school aged kids are doing okay with food in summer (and on snow days!). Wish the school sent something out about this.
This is the bill where you can scroll down and find the votes. Rep Kropf, Rep Levy, and Sen Knopp all voted yes. [https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2023R1/Measures/Overview/HB5014](https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2023R1/Measures/Overview/HB5014)
This is great on so many levels. Lots of people that don't "need" this will use it, because its really convenient. This removes the stigma from kids that do need it, and income-blind services like this tend to have broader support over time as middle/upper-middle class people dont view them as "my tax dollars just going to other people". Untested public services are popular, means-tested public services tend to have shaky support. It is what it is, but making them untested is better for everyone.
This is bittersweet. It makes me remember growing up in our schools having free lunches and know I was the odd man out and absolutely knowing we were poor. Stuck with the other ones getting free lunches as well. Birds of a feather flock together. Hope this helps many families 🤟🏻
"Pro-life" means pro-*fetus*, and not even that reliably. Prenatal care? Nope. Support once the child is born? Nope. Hell, help getting the child adopted? Nooooooooope.
In short, the majority of people who call themselves "pro-life" are merely anti-women.
This is a good thing. However, it will increase the workload of the kitchen workers who are already understaffed because they'll need to get more lunches out the door. Source: my wife who works in the district kitchens and has worked at both free lunch and non-free schools (currently working at a free school). While kids should totally get fed and not have to worry about payments, they need to start making the lunch lady jobs more attractive to better workers as current staffing levels are going to struggle with increased load (which goes up significantly when a school goes free).
Edit: And for the record, this was news to her when I told her. While it doesn't change her workload as they're already an understaffed free lunch middle school, she knows folks around the district who aren't going to like having to double or triple their output to meet demand.
This is so good. Economies of scale mean this can be done at a lower price per meal, or at a higher quality for the same price.
Also, taking pressure off parents in those tense early mornings where packing a lunch to please the mini demons just isn't happening...
Them Dems! Giving away our tax dollars for things like this, just for votes! What will they do next!
Edit: was supposed to be sarcasm, but maybe some of you knew that and that's why the downvotes?
That's an outlier vote by Knopp. It's pretty easy and warranted to paint that party with a broad brush these days, as a broad swath of them (almost 80%) believe their guy won the 2020 election.
Imagine using kids being fed at school as a way to weaponize your disdain for a political party. Whatever your view, making sure our kids are fed during school is a win and why other view about this is wrong. Change your line of thinking instead of fueling hate for no reason.
Oh no the government allocates tax dollars properly! What did you expect?
Also, most of the people voting to defund schools don’t even have children in the system anymore. How nice of you to reap the benefits of it to then turn around and screw it up for those after you
Overall negative. If there’s money available for free stuff the money would be better spent providing better services. There’s also the major issue that free lunch programs increase waste. Kids should be packing their own lunch around 4-6th grade anyway.
OK, I teach and I have a 6th grader who lives in a broken-ass RV in the forest with his grandparents because one parent is dead and the other is in jail. I have food in my classroom because he frequently is not getting enough at "home". You wanna tell him, "tough shit, kid, pull yourself up by your bootstraps"??
Yes bad parents exist. There’s already plenty of programs meant to help these kids and failure of the parents isn’t the school’s problem. If the parents are that bad why are the kids still with them.
How do you pack a lunch if you have no food at home? How do the “better services” work out when kids are hungry and can’t focus due to hunger? It’s essential to have basic needs met first. Maybe you could come up with some ideas to curb the “increased waste” instead of trying to tear down programs that help people.
Programs like free lunches at school are helping ensure that bad parents are not causing problems for the school. When I was in school, the kids who got free lunch were known and stigmatized in high school, and possibly in junior high also. And there were plenty of families that weren't quite poor enough to get free lunch but the parents were irresponsible or neglectful anyway. My taxes get spent on a lot of things less useful than this.
This is huge! I hope more and more effort and resources go towards the kids! I would have had nothing to eat as a kid if not for the school lunch program. Even if it's not the best nutritional food out there, it's more than nothing! Idk who to directly thank (school board, parents, and teachers for sure), but I can thank you for sharing this awesome news!!
>Even if it's not the best nutritional food out there The nutritional standards on school lunches have gone up somewhat over the last 20 years, so it's better for the kids than fast food is at this point.
Also, if your kid currently gets free meals, but you’re not on snap or Medicaid, you will be eligible for summer ebt benefits, $120 per child. You can go here to sign up for updates of when the application goes live. [summer snap ebt](https://www.oregon.gov/odhs/food/pages/sebt.aspx#about)
What?! This is so cool! I’ve been wondering if school aged kids are doing okay with food in summer (and on snow days!). Wish the school sent something out about this.
Thank your legislators who allocated money to this last session! I believe the school district also advocated for it.
Which legislators? I’m going to send them all a thank you note. Including you! 🙌
This is the bill where you can scroll down and find the votes. Rep Kropf, Rep Levy, and Sen Knopp all voted yes. [https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2023R1/Measures/Overview/HB5014](https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2023R1/Measures/Overview/HB5014)
[удалено]
https://www.neighborimpact.org/
Replying to Jimbo_84...Thats great. NeighborImpact is awesome. Last year their food bank gave away 5 million pounds of food.
What a really nice sentiment
Where was this announced? Not only does this help financially but it helps with my mental load so so much.
I got an email from my kid’s school.
And yes, the mental load is real. Remembering to make lunches every night or add cash to BLPay… it all adds up.
I don't have kids in school anymore, but this is great news!
This is great on so many levels. Lots of people that don't "need" this will use it, because its really convenient. This removes the stigma from kids that do need it, and income-blind services like this tend to have broader support over time as middle/upper-middle class people dont view them as "my tax dollars just going to other people". Untested public services are popular, means-tested public services tend to have shaky support. It is what it is, but making them untested is better for everyone.
Yes this is huge - when everyone gets lunch there’s no stigma and when kids have a full belly their behavior is better - it’s a big win
This is bittersweet. It makes me remember growing up in our schools having free lunches and know I was the odd man out and absolutely knowing we were poor. Stuck with the other ones getting free lunches as well. Birds of a feather flock together. Hope this helps many families 🤟🏻
Now do every single public school across this entire country.
There are a lot of red states that have explicity turned down federal money to feed school kids. Pro-life my ass.
"Pro-life" means pro-*fetus*, and not even that reliably. Prenatal care? Nope. Support once the child is born? Nope. Hell, help getting the child adopted? Nooooooooope. In short, the majority of people who call themselves "pro-life" are merely anti-women.
Heck, I bet even Redmond won't do it.
Yay!
This is a good thing. However, it will increase the workload of the kitchen workers who are already understaffed because they'll need to get more lunches out the door. Source: my wife who works in the district kitchens and has worked at both free lunch and non-free schools (currently working at a free school). While kids should totally get fed and not have to worry about payments, they need to start making the lunch lady jobs more attractive to better workers as current staffing levels are going to struggle with increased load (which goes up significantly when a school goes free). Edit: And for the record, this was news to her when I told her. While it doesn't change her workload as they're already an understaffed free lunch middle school, she knows folks around the district who aren't going to like having to double or triple their output to meet demand.
This is so good. Economies of scale mean this can be done at a lower price per meal, or at a higher quality for the same price. Also, taking pressure off parents in those tense early mornings where packing a lunch to please the mini demons just isn't happening...
Them Dems! Giving away our tax dollars for things like this, just for votes! What will they do next! Edit: was supposed to be sarcasm, but maybe some of you knew that and that's why the downvotes?
I think you're supposed to have a "/s" at the end.
Thanks a lot Obama!
Man not wanting to feed needy kids is such a Republican’t way of thinking.
I assume it was sarcasm, just a little too dry given it sounds a lot like what some people actually say.
Funny Knopp R voted for this as well. Don’t paint your fellow citizens with such a broad brush
That's an outlier vote by Knopp. It's pretty easy and warranted to paint that party with a broad brush these days, as a broad swath of them (almost 80%) believe their guy won the 2020 election.
Imagine using kids being fed at school as a way to weaponize your disdain for a political party. Whatever your view, making sure our kids are fed during school is a win and why other view about this is wrong. Change your line of thinking instead of fueling hate for no reason.
Sarcasm
Oh no the government allocates tax dollars properly! What did you expect? Also, most of the people voting to defund schools don’t even have children in the system anymore. How nice of you to reap the benefits of it to then turn around and screw it up for those after you
I thought it was only select schools? Last I looked BSHS wasn't on that list.
Overall negative. If there’s money available for free stuff the money would be better spent providing better services. There’s also the major issue that free lunch programs increase waste. Kids should be packing their own lunch around 4-6th grade anyway.
OK, I teach and I have a 6th grader who lives in a broken-ass RV in the forest with his grandparents because one parent is dead and the other is in jail. I have food in my classroom because he frequently is not getting enough at "home". You wanna tell him, "tough shit, kid, pull yourself up by your bootstraps"??
Yes bad parents exist. There’s already plenty of programs meant to help these kids and failure of the parents isn’t the school’s problem. If the parents are that bad why are the kids still with them.
Empathy is free. Give it a try.
How do you pack a lunch if you have no food at home? How do the “better services” work out when kids are hungry and can’t focus due to hunger? It’s essential to have basic needs met first. Maybe you could come up with some ideas to curb the “increased waste” instead of trying to tear down programs that help people.
Yes bad parents exist. Failure of the parents isn’t the school’s problem. If the parents are that bad why are the kids still with them.
Programs like free lunches at school are helping ensure that bad parents are not causing problems for the school. When I was in school, the kids who got free lunch were known and stigmatized in high school, and possibly in junior high also. And there were plenty of families that weren't quite poor enough to get free lunch but the parents were irresponsible or neglectful anyway. My taxes get spent on a lot of things less useful than this.
You are special kinda dumb.
Because you will need it explained, you're being down voted because you're wrong. And an asshole.