Photo via School District of Waukesha/Facebook
August 27, 2021, 1:51 pm
The school board for the Waukesha School District is facing quite a lot of heat for its decision to decline free money offered to them by the federal government to pay for free lunches for all students regardless of family income on the basis that it might make their kids become “spoiled.” Instead, the district will return to the National School Lunch Program, which only gives free school meals to students whose parents apply for it and are accepted due to low income.
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Unfortunately, the threshold for acceptance to this program is so low that many families struggling to make ends meet don’t get accepted, resulting in millions of children going hungry during school every weekday. The new program was designed to end this problem, as well as all the unnecessary red tape around the previous one, as well as preventing the stigma and embarrassment often faced by students who did qualify for free meals under the National School Lunch Program.
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For many wealthy nations, feeding kids in schools is considered a no-brainer, as they believe no children should be punished for having poor parents and knowing that hungry kids have a really hard time learning anything. However, Karin Rajnicek of the Waukesha thinks that children could “become spoiled” by eating food provided to them by adults like they always do, while the assistant superintendent for business services (whatever that is) Darren Clark worried that families could develop a “slow addiction” to free school lunches.
This led to the extremely predictable comparison to the character Immortan Joe from the hit film Mad Max: Fury Road who famously warned his desperately poor and oppressed subjects against becoming “addicted to water.”
Residents living within the district’s borders have expressed severe disappointment in the school board for this decision, including parents who are able to pay for their kids’ lunches but have the ability to care about other people.
“We’re determined to make Waukesha as good as it can be, starting with something as easy as feeding kids,” said local dad Dave Dringenburg. “This is a way to not only connect to other parents but also of realizing that change is possible — it’s just a matter of being together to do it.”
“It comes from just caring about the other members of our community,” said mom Karen Fraley. “Even if it’s not my kid who needs that food, it’s just a matter of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and understanding that we all need to take care of each other.”
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Both parents expressed a feeling that the school board was out of touch with the needs of the community. One foster mom who would have benefited from the universal free lunch program is deeply disappointed, saying that her kids had been singled out in the past for getting the free lunches provided by the National School Lunch Program because they were different meals than what was given to paying students.
“Kids called them out for getting the different meals and asked them, ‘Why do you get lunch every day?’” said Chrissy Sebald. “When it was free for everyone, you never had to have that conversation because everyone had access to it. So I really appreciated that it evened out the playing field in a way.”
Other school district administrators have further warned that they have witnessed students going hungry through the day, not eating at lunch because they didn’t qualify for the National School Lunch Program or, for whatever reason, their parents had not filed the necessary paperwork.
Local parents are now planning protests at the school district office to pressure the school board to reverse this decision and will have the support of many people across the country who are currently expressing shock and disgust at the idea of denying children food because it might “spoil” them.
If you see Waukesha school board members on the street, makes sure to knock food out of their hands. Can’t let them become spoiled https://t.co/QiGNqq11gP
— Patrick Fenelon
(@Patrick_Fenelon) August 27, 2021
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If you look at the board, you will find that they are majority WHITE and also rich.
They are trying to force BIPoC and poor families in the area to go to schools that do offer free lunch because they can’t afford to feed their kids at Waukesha School District. https://t.co/DgZMguYDpu
— bin Adamah
(@JShahryar) August 27, 2021
I assure you that no child in the Waukesha “free lunch” program would ever “get spoiled”.
Kids in these programs are already at a considerable social disadvantage from the stigma. Someone who claims this isn’t just unfamiliar with poverty. They’re unfamiliar with kids.
— Charlotte Clymer
(@cmclymer) August 27, 2021
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*First Published: August 27, 2021, 1:51 pm
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