# you gotta be kidding me!



## stoveguy2esw (Jan 30, 2014)

http://news.yahoo.com/schools-starve-students-over-money-195000176--politics.html


this is outrageous !

had this happened to my little girl when she was in school I might have shot someone.

you guys know me , I tend to "swing" conservative to a point, but jeez! you just gotta read this, and if ya have school age kids read it thoroughly. if I have to pay a higher tax rate to prevent this , so be it. not a lesson I would have wanted my baby to learn n this way


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## Smoke Stack (Jan 30, 2014)

Gives a whole new meaning to the pathetic label of:  "American exceptonalism."

Nutritious food is extremely important for a child's future physical and mental health, academic achievement, and economic productivity. Yet, we find these same people who think that it is more productive to give a hungry child food, then take it away and throw it in the trash, complain about their hard earned tax dollars going towards food subsidies for people who do not have access to nutritious food.

As a country, we can spend billions of dollars on useless political ad campaigns but we can't feed our own. That's exceptional!


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## flyingcow (Jan 31, 2014)

On a local school board and the subject of overdue lunch accounts comes up a couple of times a year. But it's always a unanimous vote that all kids get breakfast and lunch.


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## USMC80 (Jan 31, 2014)

Get rid of these lunch money accounts and go back to the old way.  Make your kids lunch or give them the 2 bucks to buy something.

Throwing the food away is just stupid though.


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## boo boo (Jan 31, 2014)

When my kids were in elementary school years ago there was a $9.00 buffer in the account. I believe it was for 6 days. Once you started using that buffer money they sent home a cafeteria homework paper to the parent. They didn't tell the child their parent didn't pay
You are correct "outrageous" They don't pay for the lunch but do pay a hefty salary to a district spokes person and he apologizes on Facebook


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## Beer Belly (Jan 31, 2014)

I would lose my mind if that happened to my kid.....if I had any....heck, it down right ticks me off hearing about anyhow.....I just keep picturing the look on the childs face as the food gets tossed, and they walk away hungry....outrageous


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## ironpony (Jan 31, 2014)

Someone would be feeling the wrath right about now. That is insane, my Mom was the lunch lady back in the day and everyone ate. Many a child went thru without paying. At the end of the day the threw away as much as they served.


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## razerface (Jan 31, 2014)

stoveguy2esw said:


> http://news.yahoo.com/schools-starve-students-over-money-195000176--politics.html
> 
> 
> this is outrageous !
> ...


Lol, you don't swing TOO far conservative!  We do not need a new tax. The people who made this rule need fired! Why is everything fixed with more taxes? 

I hope the Utah people stand up and replace the people that are responsible,,,NOW!


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## flyingcow (Jan 31, 2014)

The reality of this is most of the time this is the only decent meal they get. And I live in a very rural area. Get to know some of the "parents". The school is getting to be a much better place for these kids to be. Our elementary teachers and principal worry about the wknds.


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## webbie (Jan 31, 2014)

We just had a meeting of our condo association in RI (our summer place). Some of the residents complained a bit and said they wanted to start new committees about building improvements and landscaping. Our President shook his head (he's a practical man of action) and said "talk about what you want - it all comes down to dollars and cents and y'all have said you don't want to increase the condo fees. I know, just like you do, that the nails are popping on your decks and they need sanding, but if you want that done now we need to increase fees"......

I think that's a microcosm of what is happening around the country these days. On the positive side, I just read that state coffers are filling up fast with $$$....so most can't claim they are short on funds. I have a feeling that this thing was not done because of $$, but to "teach them a lesson".....same thing, really. 

I'm sure those administrators would tell you that they gained their exalted positions in life because of their personal fortitude (but a careful study would probably show they were born and raised with priviledge)....and therein lies the root of the problem.


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## Ehouse (Jan 31, 2014)

webbie said:


> We just had a meeting of our condo association in RI (our summer place). Some of the residents complained a bit and said they wanted to start new committees about building improvements and landscaping. Our President shook his head (he's a practical man of action) and said "talk about what you want - it all comes down to dollars and cents and y'all have said you don't want to increase the condo fees. I know, just like you do, that the nails are popping on your decks and they need sanding, but if you want that done now we need to increase fees"......




The usual dodge is for the wealthy to reach into the general fund to get their improvements payed for by the state taxpayers, AKA a "Historic District" which will conveniently include an exclusionary threshhold of, say, $5-10K to keep the riffraff out.


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## gzecc (Jan 31, 2014)

stoveguy2esw said:


> http://news.yahoo.com/schools-starve-students-over-money-195000176--politics.html
> 
> 
> this is outrageous !
> ...


 
Mean while the teachers wouldn't give my daughter any extra class help because it wasn't in her contract and she wasn't getting paid for it. (This was during teacher contract negotiations). Our town gets charged $14,000 per student it sends to our neighboring town. Education is really becoming a nightmare.


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## flyingcow (Jan 31, 2014)

so true gzecc


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## BrotherBart (Jan 31, 2014)

OK. Plenty of righteous indignation. Now, how about suggestions for how to get the parents to pay the bill for feeding their kids?


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## Delta-T (Jan 31, 2014)

there really isn't a way to enforce school lunch payments other than to incorperate it into the cost of the school's operating budget. there's just no way to punish lack of responsibility without punishing the children as a secondary consequence. I'm not against hitting people with a stick, but i
m not sure how effective it is in getting people to act like grown ups....still fun to do though. Can we eat the irresponsible parents? Egh...too gamey. You know what they say....."it takes a village"....they also say "don't eat sour haddock".


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## flyingcow (Jan 31, 2014)

BB you generally can't. Small claims is Al we can do. Just send it out to a collection agency after all else fails


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## BrotherBart (Jan 31, 2014)

flyingcow said:


> BB you generally can't. Small claims is Al we can do. Just send it out to a collection agency after all else fails



I don't have kids but if I get a bill from the schools and don't pay it they can take my house and sell it. Why should billing parents for the kid's meals be any different?


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## flyingcow (Jan 31, 2014)

BrotherBart said:


> I don't have kids but if I get a bill from the schools and don't pay it they can take my house and sell it. Why should billing parents for the kid's meals be any different?


Just can't. Not in this state. If you don't pay your town taxes the town eventually takes your property. If you owe the school directly that's different. Ironically, the majority of parents that owe lunch money would qualify for free or reduced lunch. They won't fill out the paperwork.


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## vinny11950 (Jan 31, 2014)

craziness


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## stoveguy2esw (Jan 31, 2014)

flyingcow said:


> Just can't. Not in this state. If you don't pay your town taxes the town eventually takes your property. If you owe the school directly that's different. Ironically, the majority of parents that owe lunch money would qualify for free or reduced lunch. They won't fill out the paperwork.


 


strikes me that you have to register your child in the school they go to (we had to with my girl) if the paperwork is necessary to get the lunch issue done it should be made part of the registration process.


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## USMC80 (Jan 31, 2014)

If i forgot my lunch I didn't eat or a friend would help me out.  Should be the parents responsibility to pack a lunch or give them a couple bucks to eat.  I wouldn't expect the school to do it.  At least they gave them fruit and milk to hold them over.  Better than greasy pizza anyway

/end rant


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## vinny11950 (Jan 31, 2014)

They all get lunch or no one does.

This policy teaches all the wrong lessons to kids.  It teaches social stratification and the consequences of being poor or coming from a chaotic family that is unstable enough not to care for the lunch of their children.  It also makes the school an unfriendly place to be when it should be the opposite.  Children should be learning to work together and learn together in a safe environment.  

And as mentioned above, nutrients for kids is very important to their development and learning.  It probably costs society more in terms of mentally stability and productivity.

But they did give them fruit and milk, which is something.

Crazy


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## stoveguy2esw (Jan 31, 2014)

USMC80 said:


> If i forgot my lunch I didn't eat or a friend would help me out.  Should be the parents responsibility to pack a lunch or give them a couple bucks to eat.  I wouldn't expect the school to do it.  At least they gave them fruit and milk to hold them over.  Better than greasy pizza anyway
> 
> /end rant


 


same here , but my beef is why serve them then make them throw it away, the premise is ridiculous. what would this teach the child?


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## flyingcow (Jan 31, 2014)

stoveguy2esw said:


> strikes me that you have to register your child in the school they go to (we had to with my girl) if the paperwork is necessary to get the lunch issue done it should be made part of the registration process.


It is recommended to do it then but some don't. Can't force them too. Keep in mind the more impoversed kids you have the better overall funding. So the school is trying to sign parents up. The feds use the numbers of free or reduced lunch numbers to qualify a school for additional help. You do not need to on welfare. Most working families qualify.


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## stoveguy2esw (Jan 31, 2014)

vinny11950 said:


> They all get lunch or no one does.
> 
> This policy teaches all the wrong lessons to kids.  It teaches social stratification and the consequences of being poor or coming from a chaotic family that is unstable enough not to care for the lunch of their children.  It also makes the school an unfriendly place to be when it should be the opposite.  Children should be learning to work together and learn together in a safe environment.
> 
> ...


 


bingo! this is the point i wanted to make but vinny did a better job of it than i did.


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## BrotherBart (Jan 31, 2014)

Other articles, less splashy, explain that other schools in the state catch it before check out and give the kid the fruit and milk before they go through the line. Better approach.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57472249-78/district-lunch-lake-salt.html.csp


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## Delta-T (Jan 31, 2014)

I dunno..is it a better approach? The food is already cooked no? If they budget the meals based on the number they expect to serve does not the surplus food become trash? How does this cost less?


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## webbie (Jan 31, 2014)

Funny how we argue over pennies and let trillions go (because the trillions pay for listening to our phone calls, etc.)......

But, as BB says, the "outrage machine" (media and politics) tends to steer the conversation these days. Somewhere someone is always getting the shaft.......but, overall, things are probably the best they have ever been in human history for the largest number of people....


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## BrotherBart (Jan 31, 2014)

"*Nearly 1900 killed in Syria during peace talks"*

*"40 Kids In Utah Eat Fruit and Drink Milk"*


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## Beer Belly (Jan 31, 2014)

Feeding lunch should be part of the School Budget, and responsibility, but instead, they contract an outside company to provide, and handle the lunch program, and the company looks at the $$$, not the child. I don't have kids, but if you *NEED* to increase my taxes, to make sure *ALL* kids are fed, so be it, I'd gladly pay.


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## stoveguy2esw (Jan 31, 2014)

Beer Belly said:


> Feeding lunch should be part of the School Budget, and responsibility, but instead, they contract an outside company to provide, and handle the lunch program, and the company looks at the $$$, not the child. I don't have kids, but if you *NEED* to increase my taxes, to make sure *ALL* kids are fed, so be it, I'd gladly pay.


 


 i agree, i'd much rather know my tax dollars are making sure that kids are geting nutrition at school than paying for some foriegn country's bribe money so they "like" us (when usually they dont)


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## USMC80 (Jan 31, 2014)

stoveguy2esw said:


> same here , but my beef is why serve them then make them throw it away, the premise is ridiculous. what would this teach the child?


ya. i don't understand that at all


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## BrotherBart (Jan 31, 2014)

Kids gotta have those veggies.

"Pizza is a vegetable for the purposes of determining what goes into public school lunches by virtue of the fact that pizza traditionally includes a schemer of tomato paste."

"School meals that are subsidized by the federal government must include a certain amount of vegetables," the AP reports, "and USDA's proposal could have pushed pizza-makers and potato growers out of the school lunch business." It would have pushed vegetable growers _into_ the business, but their lobbyists aren't as powerful, it seems."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/16/pizza-vegetable-school-lunches-lobbyists_n_1098029.html


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## Beer Belly (Jan 31, 2014)

Believe me, I work for a school system.....Union officer my entire time here, with the exception of this year, was President for two terms and saw first hand the waste of taxpayer $$$....all the perks for some (under the table)....some fellow workers get as many as *an extra 40 paid days off*, along with their normal 15 vacation, 10 sick, 2 personal, and 17 paid holidays, and a tremendous amount of O/T to oversee an outside contractor doing the job that *THEY* should be doing....the waste is in the $100,000+ range that I know of.......I choose not to run for office, because it makes me sick.....Sorry, rant over


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## Ashful (Jan 31, 2014)

Ehouse said:


> The usual dodge is for the wealthy to reach into the general fund to get their improvements payed for by the state taxpayers, AKA a "Historic District" which will conveniently include an exclusionary threshhold of, say, $5-10K to keep the riffraff out.


Sounds like sour grapes .


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## Ehouse (Jan 31, 2014)

Joful said:


> Sounds like sour grapes .



Nah, all us po' folk defeated the proposal.


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## johneh (Jan 31, 2014)

USMC80 said:


> If i forgot my lunch I didn't eat or a friend would help me out. Should be the parents responsibility to pack a lunch or give them a couple bucks to eat. I wouldn't expect the school to do it. At least they gave them fruit and milk to hold them over. Better than greasy pizza anyway


X2


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## Ehouse (Jan 31, 2014)

stoveguy2esw said:


> i agree, i'd much rather know my tax dollars are making sure that kids are geting nutrition at school than paying for some foriegn country's bribe money so they "like" us (when usually they dont)




I'm with you and belly.  The budget provides lunch for anyone that wants it. Not all will. My daughter opts out 3 out of 5 on average.


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## Mrs. Krabappel (Jan 31, 2014)

The lunch program is federal dollars.    You can't force parents to fill out the form.   Some are too proud.  Some can't be bothered. There are 1,000 stories.   I have "helped" kids get it filled out.        

As crappy as this story is, I'm still waiting on the story about the scads of kids who get fed every day thanks to school staff.   I probably spend 5% of my salary on food for kids who don't get enough, and most other teachers do the same.


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## Ehouse (Feb 1, 2014)

As far as food left over, give it to those who need it to take home.


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## begreen (Feb 1, 2014)

The employees have been put on leave as school investigates:
http://news.msn.com/us/employees-put-on-leave-after-school-lunches-taken


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