Of course I have a clue, it's simple math.

Years ago my son was going to school in MN where I live. He was a senior when I enrolled him . When I was enrolling him. They brought up free lunches. I said no, I'm a machinist at Caterpillar and make pretty good money. They didn't want to hear it. They just gave him free lunches. I really think it's a state thing

Again you bolster making young children feel damaged. So many other things, I'm sorry you are the way you are and will pray for you but unfortunately will have to block you. Anyone under any circumstance that would make kids suffer is not a good person.

Ok, I got a minute. Free and reduced priced lunches started in my school when I was in 5th grade. My mom qualified for a reduced lunch for me, which was almost free. Lunches at the time cost $1, and reduced lunches were $0.25. She signed me up. They segregated the free/reduced/full price kids in the lunch line, with the free lunches going first, then reduced, then full price. I guess to make the charity cases feel better? So everyone knew who was poor, or mostly poor. I hated it. It was embarrassing.

Two years later, I moved on to Jr. high, in a new building. In the first week they send the paperwork home for my mom to fill out for me to get reduced lunches. She started filling it out, and I asked her not to sign me up for it. She fussed about not being able to afford the extra $5 a week. I told her I would earn the $5 a week doing odd jobs. She agreed eventually. That weekend I split some wood (for his house, I already did that for free for our house) and stacked some bricks for my grandfather and earned $10. On Sunday I went to give my mom $5 for the next week of lunches. She told me to keep it. The next weekend I tried again to pay her $5 and she told me I didn't need to pay for my lunches, she would.

The moral of this story is whatever you make it.

I decided to look into that. In 2023, .28% of the federal budget was spent on school free food programs. Thats $.0028 of every dollar. So about 1.1 cents of every $4. So if you paid $10,000 in taxes in 2023, $25 of it went to feed kids in school if my math is correct.

Just for perspective. I admit it kind of warms my heart to know that a penny of every $4 of my tax money goes to feed a kid. But I do understand others may not feel that way, thats just me.

Edit - here is the math to check my figures: .28% is .0028 x 10,000 = $28. I was $3 off

Bye.

I am surprised the abortion thing hasn't come up and don't ever think I would condone abortion from the fact I brought it up. But when people have kids that don't want them in the first place and they aren't put on an orphan train, then someone is going to have to pay. So who will it be? You can't legislate parenthood to be the perfect parent.

Completely different side track there, but.... start by making adoption easier and more affordable.

Don't incentivize $$$ people to have kids.

If y'all ain't figured it out yet, .gov is out to destroy God, the family, and any sense of pride in self efficiency. You don't need those things when .gov can be/provide it all.

Think about all the entitlement you are buying with that penny and how much money and punishment it will take to change it.

I think many if you forget that it's not just "young children" or, in the last few posts, they've been reduced to "babies" getting a free ride. It's anyone in school. That mean teens who should be able to get a job, and buy their own lunch. Some of you will be pee and moaning in a day or two about how lazy and unresponsible young folks are in these very pages. I wonder how they got that way.

Mean ole conservatives that wouldn’t buy them lunch when they were hungry. lol

Hobbietrapper - My experience does not back that up at all. I went to school with kids who got free/reduced lunches, some of whom were my friends. One brother and sisters’ dad had passed away and mom went to work but they still qualified. Thinking back, I cant remember everyone who was on that program but the ones I can remember which is 4 that I can think of, have all turned out to be good people. One is a fortune 500 executive making 6 figures last I knew (we went on a hunt together years ago).
Im not saying it never creates an “im entitled to everything free” mentality, but it sure didnt for the few I remember.

Not that it matters for my feeling on this, it still warms my heart to know that $28 of every $10,000 i pay in taxes feeds kids. Ive read through this whole thread, and that feeling remains.

Exceptions can always be found, it’s good you feel positive about it.

Your back and gave me a thankful reminder of why I should ignore you too. Anyone who can't separate feeding youngins from a broken system is either broken or flat out stupid.

Absolutely. If a person cannot vet their pets they have no right having that pet but you were on here begging for just that not long ago. Point is dont judge you have no idea what hardships have become of somebody.

How many years ago was this? The sense of entitlement now is completely different. It didn't really exist back then.

I believe it was wrong for your school to publicly shame you like that. Even though there was some societal benefit in your case, it was wrong to put shame on you for what was not your fault. Lots of other children, who aren't as emotionally strong would feel ostracized and withdraw in the same situation as yours or act out angrily.

I've always had a soft spot for children. I don't think we should overly inflate their ego. I also don't think we should shame them for what they have no control of. I am perfectly happy to pay taxes to feed and educate American children. I have been asked and volunteered to teach fairly frequently and I have donated all the compensation I have received back to the programs. I strongly believe helping our children helps our society in the most impactfull way possible.

Keith