Rhode Island School To Serve Cold Sandwiches Instead of Hot Lunches To Students That Owe Money
WARWICK, R.I. — A Rhode Island school district will begin serving cold sandwiches instead of hot lunches to students whose families owe lunch money.
Let’s first remember one thing here: it is not the kids fault that they cannot pay off their lunch debt. Kids ages 5 to 12 generally do not have jobs. That is what we in this country call “illegal”. And on top of that, kids that cannot pay off their lunch debt generally come from homes that don’t have much food there either. This is a lose / lose situation for the kids, which sucks. BUT, this is also a lose / lose situation for the school. Do they want to do this? Of course not. No one gets into education if they hate kids. But they had to make some sort of change. They are losing too much money from kids charging lunches.
Warwick Public Schools says it is owed more than $40,000 from outstanding lunch payments and cannot afford to absorb the costs.
Yeah, that is the cause for a change. How is a school supposed to operate if they’re losing money? Teachers are already overworked and underpaid. They have to provide their own supplies because schools can’t afford to. And then there’s computers, textbooks, and transportation costs that are overwhelming districts, too. So to everyone on the internet that is accusing Warwick Public Schools of some sort of cruel and humiliating punishment: chill out. But as you would guess, the top comment of the 400+ on this Facebook post is from someone who is “deeply offended”.
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Maybe this is wrong….but this is how I feel. Why are we complaining about a free peanut butter and jelly? It’s FREE. I hate when beggars are choosers. And again, I know it isn’t the kids fault. But sorry the school isn’t providing a full 5-course meal to kids when their families owe hundreds of dollars. What else is the school supposed to do? I’m sure people can come up with better answers than serving a PB & J every day, but they’re still providing something to these kids. And I can guarantee you that this $40,000 debt is gone very soon anyways. This story is going to get so big that a Go Fund Me or a private donor will fix this problem immediately. Pretty smart move by the district if this was their long con.
This is obviously a complicated problem, but for real though, what is the downside of charging all of your lunches if you can just keep doing it? From my understanding and experience within schools, kids that come from families under a certain income level already receive the normal lunches for free. And they get free breakfast, too. So this has nothing to do with families that CAN’T pay. This has more to do with families that WON’T pay. There has to be some sort of deterrent to this. And I hate that the ones that suffer are 8-year-old kids, but at some point parents need to be held responsible. Because I’m sure parents are taking advantage of the charging system. That’s how $40,000 in debt gets racked up. And it’s not like the school employees are sitting around enjoying all of the good food they’re saving because they’re giving these kids peanut butter and jellys now. Besides, who would steal lunches from kids?