babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
School Lunch: It Feeds Kids
School's out: Where do the kids eat?
It’s almost Thanksgiving. No school! Kids are excited! Parents, maybe not so much, but not for the usual reasons of wondering how we’ll fill the time. For millions of parents, kids at home means kids to feed and with a continuing recession and rising food prices, that’s not always easy.
According to the US Agriculture department, in 2009, 50 million households, that’s 15 percent of all families in the US, were food insecure. In other words, those households weren’t sure if they’d have enough money for food or flat out couldn’t buy enough to feed their families.
Reading about how bad school lunches are, it’s easy to forget that, along with school breakfasts, they do something really important: Feed kids. Thirty million of them. These days, many people who might never have thought that they’d need food support now find themselves relying on it to feed their families.
So when we think about school lunches, it’s very important to focus on what kids are eating, but it’s also important to recognize that kids need to eat.
Honestly, right about now I’d love to launch into a big tirade about Goldman Sachs and Wall Street bonuses, not to mention the argument over extending the Bush tax cuts and who really decimated the budget and created this damaging recession and how we might help people who are suffering because of it, but I won’t. We need to focus on the positive!
During this holiday season families who can work at food pantries, donate to food and money to food banks, and help out at soup kitchens. This is crucial because when school’s out, food banks report more people come in.
Food banks get a lot of money and food from the government and from private donors. Supporting them won’t change the basic problem of food insecurity and hunger in the land of plenty, but families who will struggle through the end of the year need all the hands-on help they can get. To find a food bank near you, click here.
Is volunteering or donating food/money part of your family’s holiday tradition?
photo credit: David Shanbone (via Wiki Commons)
More on Strollerderby:
Do Celebrity Moms Make the Rest of Us Want to Lose Weight Fast?
Breastfeeding (and bottlefeeding) Teaches Body Language
Food Allergies and Food Bans: Are they too much?
Family Dinner is Nice but Not Everything
A Bad Report Card: What Do You Do
The Marshmallow Test: Squishy on Intelligence, But How About ADHD?
Go Back To Strollerderby
6 Comments
Linda, the original one commented on Nov 17 10 at 1:02 pmSo basically, when it comes to poor children, feeding them absolute crap is better then nothing? Wow. Nice, Robin.
Nancy Rice commented on Nov 17 10 at 1:31 pmConcerned parents should also contact their US Representatives in support of S 3307, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which gives schools critical resources to reach more hungry children with healthy school meals and to serve more fresh produce, whole grains and low-fat dairy products in cafeterias. Read more about how schools nationwide are working to provide students with more nutritious choices by visiting http://www.TrayTalk.org.
School Nutrition Association President Nancy Rice, M.Ed., RD, LD, SNS
Robin Aronson commented on Nov 17 10 at 2:02 pmUm, no, feeding kids absolute crap is not what I’m suggesting. When it comes to school lunches I think they should be free for all kids to cut down the administrative costs and free up money for better food. Read about it here:
http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/blogs/tom-colicchio/lets-feed-our-children?page=0%2C0School lunches feed a lot of kids who wouldn’t otherwise get fed. Over the holidays, they may not. All I’m doing here is pointing out the problem of food insecurity.
Linda, the original one commented on Nov 17 10 at 7:21 pmThen maybe a rewrite is in order, because that’s not what your piece appears to imply.
Robin Aronson commented on Nov 18 10 at 8:30 amI thought this line made it pretty clear I want healthy school lunches: “So when we think about school lunches, it’s very important to focus on what kids are eating, but it’s also important to recognize that kids need to eat.”
You’re right, though, Linda, my position could be clearer and I apologize for any confusion with it.
Andrea commented on Nov 19 10 at 5:57 pmAnd in any case, I’d say that absolutely feeding any kids crap is better than nothing. We should try to do better (try really hard to do better, in fact), but I think the author’s point was that regardless of the quality of lunches, they KEEP KIDS FROM STARVING, and that has merit no matter what.
Add your take:
Note: Babble is a supportive, diverse community. We encourage a range of opinions,
but any unduly hostile comments will be removed.
Comments are delayed up to 15 minutes
Lori Garcia 
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
6