In 2010, school cafeterias served over five billion lunches in 2010, with more than half of the supply being supplemented or reduced, according to the USDA Economic Service. Alarmingly, this means that one out of every two children in the United States lives at or below what the USDA considers the poverty level. Despite these statistics, new laws and information surfacing about the free and reduced lunch program are beginning to raise eyebrows and questions abound.
KAAL-TV explains how the “Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act” passed by President Obama, millions thousands of changes were signed into law. In addition to nutritional-content”>regulating mealtimes, the law also gave the USDA the power to control the price of school lunches nationwide.
Whereas districts previously could set their own meal prices in their budgets, the USDA now sets the national standard. Schools are now reimbursed by the USDA for every free and reduced lunch they serve; But the USDA proposes a price that the government will pay for. With the current average increase of $.05 each year, one Texas school anticipates a USDA price increase of nearly $3.00 per free lunch next year. in a few years.
According to the Icelandic file, non-reduced school lunches should set the price as close to the USDA standard as possible. For this reason, the USDA wants to ensure that schools are adequately protected to cover the costs of free and reduced food production. By themselves, students who pay the fees will pay more to cover the costs of the teams.
In many regions, this creates economic hardship for the population. One Minnesota district reports that they will have to increase the price of school lunches from $1.93 to $2.51, and they will do so while maintaining the price. However, parents are worried about the tight budgets that will save every penny but not qualify for reduced meals.
However, as the average price of each meal increases, this will also mean that more families will need help. Essentially, not reducing the price of school lunches will mean more students are eligible for free and reduced lunches. Eventually, the costs will go up, the number of students in the discounted lunch program will not outweigh the number of students.
But is this the end of free and reduced meals, so that so many families can get dependent on it? However, our nation holds that the government should be fully responsible for safeguarding our nation’s children.
And what cap will be the price of meals; Is there a lunch ceiling? How is the price determined? And why was I able to provide myself with so much more than the cost of the meal? I do not want to buy school lunches for my children, knowing that I will not pay for the actual meal and expenses, but will be billed an inflated rate to meet the government’s expenses. The less I could pack a child’s homemade lunch for pennies on the dollar.
When it comes to free and reduced lunch programs, it is understood that there is a need to help poor families. However, with these more recent laws and institutions, it looks like such a development has a lot more behind it than sandwiches, apples and milk. I can’t put my finger on it yet, but there are a lot of dining room politics in the game.
