It’s no secret that students like to joke about school lunches. But in reality, these meals provide vital sustenance for hundreds of thousands of children in the United States who otherwise might go hungry. in the article ¨No, such thing as free lunch¨ stated that these lunches have impacts on children, immigrants, and schools. By all estimates, more than 30 million U.S. schoolchildren currently receive free or reduced-price school lunches. But the Trump administration is concerned that there are students receiving this benefit who shouldn’t be.
The Trump administration has also recently proposed a new plan that would require anyone seeking citizenship to prove that they won’t rely on public assistance programs, such as food stamps. But in many households, the children are citizens (and thus eligible to receive SNAP benefits and free lunch) even if their parents are not. However, parents are reluctant to enroll their children in the program because they are afraid that doing so will keep them from being able to become citizens.
Currently, any school with at least 40 percent of its students on free lunch is allowed to provide free lunch to all of its students. This saves the school administrators a lot of time and paperwork and also eliminates the social stigma involved. (At these schools, no one feels embarrassed about receiving free lunch, because everyone does.) But under the new rules, more than 2,000 schools are at risk to drop below that threshold, meaning that they will no longer be able to provide free meals to all students.
We being able to get free lunches in school is such a blessing, that we don’t appreciate enough because, unlike others who don’t have nothing to eat, we are seemed so lucky.
Dear Maria,
I am impressed by your post, “No such thing as a free lunch” because it is incredible how many children are citizens that are eligible to receive food stamps but their parents choose to not get them because they are afraid of not being able to become citizens one day. It’s sad that some schools will not be able to provide free lunches anymore because some students do not qualify for this reason.
One sentence you wrote that stands out to me is: “This saves the school administrators a lot of time and paperwork and also eliminates the social stigma involved. (At these schools, no one feels embarrassed about receiving free lunch, because everyone does)”. I think this is assertive because if only some students are allowed to get lunch they will feel embarrassed because it’ll seem like they are the only ones in the school whose parents can’t afford to give them money for lunch.
Thanks for your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next because I like the way you take something positive and something negative out of your reading.
Ana