Free School Lunches for All is Better; And the Lunches Are Not Really Free

How to Help Kids, Help Their Parents and Help the Schools

If a family is economically disadvantages they can get reduced price or free school lunches for their kids. This is ridiculous. To implement the program requires income checks, subjects children to humiliation and causes untold administrative problems for the schools. No one knows how many teachers and school staff reach into their own pockets to make sure some kids have a meal, but the number is certainly large.

A better way, as a NYT editorial advocates, is just to make the lunches free to the kids.

New York City’s public school system set an important national example this week when it made free lunch available to all of its 1.1 million students regardless of income level. The program ensures that more children will get proper nutrition during the school day. It will also relieve the sense of stigma and shame that often leads children to refuse subsidized meals — and go hungry — rather than let classmates find out that their families are poor.

Three quarters of New York City schoolchildren had already qualified for free or reduced-price lunches. The new initiative reaches another 200,000 children, saving their families about $300 a year per child. These additional lunches are not expected to cost the city more money, thanks to the federal Community Eligibility Provision program, under which schools that offer free lunch and breakfast to all children are reimbursed based on students’ poverty level. A new state data system that matched poor families with the schools their children attend has allowed the city to sign up for the program.

Yes, we know, conservatives will decry making school lunches free, after all it would just make children and parents and school officials lives easier and we all know conservatives hate for government to do that. But the benefits are huge.

And free lunches are not free lunches. The farmers that produce the food get paid. The food companies that process the food gets paid. The staff that cooks and serves the food gets paid. The only difference with making all school lunches free is how they get paid for. Removing that burden from parents and schools just makes common sense.