@mekkaokereke
When school lunch programs throw out the "who deserves to get free lunches?" and just provide for every child, the entire program is cheaper due to the lack of an enforcement layer, all children get fed, and children learn more and pay attention better.

Being overly concerned that someone might get something they don't "deserve" usually ends up screwing over the ones who need help most.

We're supposed to "promote the general welfare" of the public - not gate-keep who gets help.

And then there's the question of how "food" and "lunch" are defined.

I was a gradeschooler in the early-mid '80s, in a rich-to-very-rich suburban U.S. school district. The lunches – not free – were high in processed fat, white starch, sugar, salt, and additives. Hamburgers with a bunch of filler; hot dogs, gas station-spec nachos, "french bread pizza", chikkin nuggets, dubious cheese, boiled-to-death vegetables, sugary canned fruit cocktail, etc. Filled up my belly (and enlarged it), but nutrition? LOLnope. I'm sure they've only got worse in the United States of Ketchup Counts As A Vegetable. Oh yeah, they also offered a "brown bag special" at lower cost, which was a couple slices of dubious bologna and a square of plastic cheez with imitation mayonnaise, on white bread.

Compare that slop to this what they somehow manage to do in Japan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITzRFAfJsLA

@bipolaron @realtegan @mekkaokereke