But the rest of society should?Thats why the snowball has grown into a mountain.

That Sir is a true statement no doubt.

Why stop at free lunches? Free public education . Out the window. No School taxes to pay to support other children . Pay your way. Energy assistance program out the window too. Freeze them out. move down south . Medicaid Medicare out the window. Get sick to bad. Die . anything else. ??

They are going to pay it back right
after the student loan.

We wonder why young trappers don't post more.

In the school district that covers the area where I live, more than 50 % of the students qualify for free lunches therefor everyone gets a free lunch because they don't want the ones who can't afford to pay to be labeled or made fun of. You can't even opt out of the free lunches and pay anyway, if you send a lunch with the child the school system still gets the money because the student is enrolled in the school system. It is a huge expenditure and I wonder how many other areas are in this same situation.

… same here in this county … wife sends lunch with the kids anyway

If the States did not steal the intended lottery revenues we would not be having this conversation in many places.

A few questions and thoughts

I was hungry once I didn’t like it.
How many kids never missed a meal and turned out poorly?
Can a K-8 child really be that bad?
If you drop a drink or let a kid go hungry what would make you feel worse?

I think it was Warren Buffet who said that compared to past generations our living standard is higher then it has ever been if you just look around and think about your needs VS wants today. We just want more that never changes does that make us bad?

NY has had free breakfast and lunch for years, now its free for everyone....

We have businesses that pick up the difference in Sioux Falls to cover lunches.

…. When I was in school they fed us range cubes with alfalfa pellets for desert

Fish head soup wasn’t too bad if you’re hungry enough

As it turns out, poverty and bad family life wasn't invented until 1964. Before that, all families were perfect, all parents took good care of their children, and crime was non-existent.
I don't have to ask because it is obvious that some of the commenters have never worked with children, only repeating the exceptional "welfare Cadillac" mantra.
Where is Musk and the DOGE when we really need him to track down all these dead-beat kids getting free lunches when they could be in the fields picking cotton. You know, save us that $18 per year or whatever it was. Oh wait, he's busy calling for Trump to be impeached. Trump says Musk is only saying these nasty things because Musk is losing ev subsidies. Whatever.
I can't believe this is being debated on a subsidized internet. Feed the kids and move on.

Was there a communal salt lick as well?

… naw we were high class…. Had a molasses tub

Some good points.
So the local and state governments are even more or less as corrupt as the federal government!
Do you remember when gambling was illegal ?
Do you remember the promises the states made that a lottery would be used to support schools? Do you remember when the lottery money went into the states general fund?
Do you remember when the government started the mega lottery? Or is it the super lottery?
All the states got involved, and just who gets all that tax money?
Funny how no matter how much money the government gets , it always needs more!
Now it's legal to bet on sports, billions of dollars are made for each state. Let alone the federal government.
Just stop and think just how much the government on ALL levels wastes on themselves and puts into their pockets !
School lunch programs are just another money making scam by the state government.
Do you remember when parents couldn't afford to feed and raise their children, they sent them to orphanages ?
And when they could afford them asked for them back?
My parents went through that, and how many of your parents were in orphanages ?
What happened to mental institutions ?
The government wasn't making any pocket change by providing services to help the people.
People used to make do, and live within their means.
The government decided to stop parents from raising their children with discipline , and take prayer out of schools, and even the pledge of allegiance .
So just who is controlling our lives?
Just remember income tax wasn't until around what? the 1920's?
The more government gets involved the worse the country gets!
Government thinks there's a bottomless well to draw from.
Well isn't getting very dry!

Wow, great post!

It’s not the money, it’s what it’s buying……and it ain’t the food.

I don't ever remember eating much at all when I was a child, during school summer break. we would do some chores, sneak away the first chance we got and been on the move all day. Every now and then there would be a supper or holiday gathering. I just thought that's the way it was supposed be. I can't believe how we did so much with so little fuel.

I was thinking about this also I can’t remember what I ate as a kid besides McDs and candy. LOL

There's bigger waste than school lunches.