Free food really for everyone?

[SaintsManiac]

My district passed out a week’s worth yesterday. They will start again after spring break.

 

[unrequited23]

When our school closures were first announced, the district had huge boxes of perishables that were free to anyone in the community distributed through a pickup line. Now they have shifted to providing once a week pickup of breakfast and lunch items for any child under 18. You must fill out a form a week ahead of time, since they only have enough for 500 kids. We just finished up the last of the produce we got from the first distribution and have not signed up for any of the meals, since the featured fresh fruits of the week were kiwis and strawberries. Neither kid will eat those.

 

[QueenIsabella]

We happen to live within walking distance of one of the schools distributing food. We haven't gone, because my philosophy is that it's for people in need--we aren't. After seeing some of the viewpoints here--about keeping the programs running by taking the food, etc., I asked my DD16 if she'd be interested in trying some. She said, "No way! That's for kids who really need it! We have plenty of food!" I can't argue with that. But, I do hope there's enough interest/usage that they continue to offer the program.

 

[eileenjez]

My daughters school was already providing breakfast and lunch for all the school kids . Now they are doing bagged breakfast and lunches for the kids thru middle school. I'm sure no one is checking to see how old the kids are. Since she has 4 kids she get 4 bags. The only thing is they get 4 apples every day and they don't always eat them. Our solution is she gives them to me and I bake something with them and give it back to her. Gives me something to do and the apples don't get wasted.

 

[monsterkitty]

The district I teach in is supplying breakfast and lunch as it is a poverty-level district. They started at just serving from the high school and middle schools but kids couldn't get there because they had no transportation. Now we have busses that go to each of the bus stops and serve from there. They are also doing food for the weekends.

The district I live in is only providing lunch M, W, and F.

 

[1GoldenSun]

We happen to live within walking distance of one of the schools distributing food. We haven't gone, because my philosophy is that it's for people in need--we aren't. After seeing some of the viewpoints here--about keeping the programs running by taking the food, etc., I asked my DD16 if she'd be interested in trying some. She said, "No way! That's for kids who really need it! We have plenty of food!" I can't argue with that. But, I do hope there's enough interest/usage that they continue to offer the program.

See this is exactly what I thought! Although the meals are technically available to everyone, I thought this was just for the sake of convenience and that they'd prefer that you not take the meals if you don't need them. But they really seem to be encouraging everyone to utilize the program, and like you said, the comments from many people here explains why that's probably the case.

We went again today and will probably continue to go as long as it stays open or as long as my son is still interested. I'm concerned that they may not be able to continue. We were there just after 9:00 when they opened this morning and we were again the only people there at the time. Again they asked me to tell my friends to come out and get food for their kids. I'm hoping that people just trickle through slowly all day long and that they get enough "business" to continue. The vast majority of the area around the school is composed of housing in which I'm sure the families can well afford food, but there is one subsidized-housing apartment complex where there are probably kids in need and this is the only school they could reasonably walk to. My son really enjoyed the meal again today and it kept me from having to prepare breakfast and lunch so I was happy. We'll keep doing our part in keeping it open!

 

[Luv Bunnies]

My district in California is passing out lunches Mon-Fri. You can get one for each child, up to age 18, who is in the car at the time. You can also walk up, but the kids have to be with you. I was on a Zoom meeting the other day (I work at one of the schools) and the food service manager gave an update. He said after the first week, they determined how many people were coming on a regular basis. They were able to adjust the number of hot lunches they were preparing each day. There are people who try to get extras by saying they have kids at home who couldn't come. They have had to be strict about only giving one meal per child who actually shows up so it doesn't get out of hand. He said they've gotten pretty accurate with how many lunches they will be handing out in a day. If people show up and they're out of hot lunches, they have bags of non-perishable food to give out as a back-up. Our district has a fair amount of kids who receive free and reduced lunches. They are not asking for any type of proof right now. Anyone who lives in the district can bring a child for a meal.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

If it's free for everyone go ahead. I'm quite sure if you're not able to ride it out on your yacht and flaunt it, that the amount you save by taking the free meal is going to come in handy some way.