Badtux the Snarky PenguinJun 20, 2023

At the rural school district I last worked at, we had 1500 students, of whom 1,000 were free lunch and 500 were not. The cost of personnel (an entire department!), computers, and software for vetting students to make sure those 500 didn't get free lunch cost more than the cost of simply feeding them, already.

The GOP jihad about preventing those 500 from getting free lunch is not about taxes or expense, it's about being mean to children. #gop #antichild #school #lunch #meanness

Show threadchicating
@badtux Somebody I talked to recently said he didn't trust the government to feed his kids and that maybe they'd make her eat them. Kinda nuts, right?
Jun 20, 2023 at 6:49pmWeb
Show threadBadtux the Snarky PenguinJun 20, 2023
@chicating The Federal school lunch program has been around since 1946. Thus far no parents have been eaten as part of the Federal school lunch program, regardless of what nutty conspiracy theorists think. I gotta figure that if it's been around for almost 80 years and no parents have been eaten, it ain't gonna happen, lol.
Show threadchicatingJun 20, 2023
@badtux Ha, ha...I was afraid it would read like that...the object of my verb wasn't clear...this is how rumors get started. He was afraid his daughter would be forced to eat food full of additives and whatnot. Not soylent green, though.
Show threadchicatingJun 20, 2023
@badtux his daughter eat the lunches...not really clear from what I wrote. Still, they're not *compulsory*, just there if you need 'em, right?
I did agree they needed to up their game w what was served...I mean, sure. But somehow doubt GOP objections are about getting better quality...
Show threadBadtux the Snarky PenguinJun 20, 2023
@chicating A kid either goes through the lunch line or not, I'm not sure how a school would force a child to go through the lunch line. I will say that if a child neither goes through the lunch line nor eats a sack lunch, we're going to get concerned and start asking questions and if we don't get answers there's going to be a referral to child welfare -- hungry children don't do well in school and it's also a possible sign of child abuse.
Show threadBadtux the Snarky PenguinJun 20, 2023
@chicating Regarding upping the game, if a child has dietary restrictions our school lunch program was always good about working around them, even to the point of creating different meals for certain children who had medical restrictions such as food allergies. This is required by Federal law and we complied with it.
Show threadchicatingJun 20, 2023
@badtux I'm sincerely glad to know about that...I did not, although you *hope* someone would do those things...
Show threadBadtux the Snarky PenguinJun 20, 2023

@chicating It's actually part of the ADA, Americans with Disability Act, that school lunch programs must accomodate disabilities, and that those disabilities include medically verifiable food allergies.

https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/modifications-accommodate-disabilities-school-meal-programs

Show threadchicatingJun 20, 2023
@badtux For a disabled person, I can be under-informed about ADA,