The Times ran an article the other day about how the Canutillo Independent School District is trying to increase participation in their free breakfast program.
They must be having problems giving away their free food.
The district benefits from federal funding for the meals. They also receive more federal assistance with technology purchases when a higher percentage of the students eat the free breakfasts. If not enough kids can be counted in the government give-away the district does not get as much money for their high-tech egos.
Self reliance discouraged
A district official was quoted as saying “Some of them eat at home…”. Heaven forbid!
She went on to say “… some of them get here early enough, but they just want to go and play with their friends.” Imagine that.
Government for all
The district’s solution is the Grab and Go Breakfast program. The students are given a breakfast bag as they enter the school. According to the article the students “can eat healthy breakfast foods while they are on their way to class or during the first few minutes of class”.
I guess eating trumps learning. Maybe in the future they can serve a buffet lunch during fourth period and then maybe have happy hour at the end of the day.
The district should probably plan to buy some more garbage cans.
Taking the cake
One mother was quoted this way “Sometimes we come late because there is a lot of traffic, so I don’t get to bring them to breakfast. So this has been really helpful for me and the kids because I know they are eating.”
That darn traffic! Without the government helping me I might have had to get up earlier and do part of my mothering job.
Those kids deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Just when you think federal programs can’t get more idiotic:” Hey, we’ve got a great way to spend even more welfare dollars. Don’t feed your kids like normal parents; let us do it for you.”
As if El Paso and County aren’t already on enough welfare (billionaires included). You should have a topic on this blog about the poverty economy in El Paso and how important it is, especially to all the developers, landlords, lawyers, politicians, and medical facilities that feed off of it. Poverty is our most important industry and government spending here is geared to keeping it that way!
LikeLike
Thanks for acknowledging the corporate welfare, which typically gets reclassified as public/private partnerships. Ironically, more often than not, those benefiting from corporate welfare are the ones who are most opposed to welfare for individuals, even those who truly need it.
LikeLike
And here’s another federal program that can never be taken away because it’s “for the children.” Anyone who tries to stop it will be accused of taking food out of the mouths of babes. The Dept of Agriculture is in charge of it and some complain its mainly a federal subsidy for food producers.
LikeLike
We can all recall when the Reagan administration wanted to label Ketchup as a vegetable in subsidized school lunches because the Ketchup lobby (hmm..The Heinz family and Reagan donors perhaps?) wanted it labelled it that way?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchup_as_a_vegetable
LikeLike
You’re right, all politicians turn to corporate welfare for support. This is probably no different. I don’t think it has anything to do with the annual income of the parents or economic situation in the U.S.. Look at any state’s universal free breakfast and lunch program website and you will see that there are no income standards. It’s just what it says — universal. What it is not is free, at least to the taxpayers. Corporate welfare stinks in any form from any politician. My point is that this corporate welfare program happens to involve children so there’s no chance it will ever be stopped. No politician will ever go there.
LikeLike
We could have less pediatric obesity if they spend the $ on phys-ed…
LikeLike
These types of programs have been in existence since 1946 when President Truman signed the National School Lunch Act. You are just now noticing it after 67 years? Find out more about it here: http://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp/national-school-lunch-program
Wait until you find out about the free lunches handed out during the summer when school is out of session!
I notice that you are not complying about the subsidized $1 senior center lunches that the city hands out at every Senior Recreation Centers.
Selective indignation Sr. Brutus?
Please remember: The school districts DO NOT WRITE FEDERAL LAWS or guidelines that go with programs.
Perhaps you should be complaining to Mr. O’Rourke about those hideous kids getting breakfast every morning.He has the power to change the law, not the cafeteria lady at Canutillo Elementary school.
LikeLike
OK. I suppose you could justify handing out diapers for babies and cookies and milk to kids on the basis of, “we can’t trust parents to do what parents are supposed to do and we don’t want anyone to think they are deprived.” What else could we hand out to the deserving tykes, seniors, single moms, undocumented, newly-arrived migrants, bored billionaires…
We do know how to hand out half the tax base to Paul and Woody and friends, so why bitch about a few kinds in Canutillo?
LikeLike
Actually my thoughts were mostly about the parents that expect someone else to do their job.
Your knowledge about other historical situations would be welcome.
The team here would be happy to include you as an author.
Brutus
LikeLike
To me, if the program was started back in the 1940’s, then the problem of “parents not doing their job” has been around a long time and is not limited to low socioeconomic areas on the Texas border. These programs are nationwide, so there are a lot of people using them. Maybe it says more about the economic condition of the country than the state of parenting. (of course, I think that the ability to be a better parent has a lot to do with your socio economic status…)
You cannot legislate good parenting. As educators, we can only control what happens after a kid enters our doors. If a kid (or a whole lot of kids) happen to be hungry when they come to school, it benefits the school to have kids that have been fed, by hook or by crook. So we feed them using Federal programs.
Who is hurt by that?
There are quite a few things that schools are expected to do nowadays that used to be the purview of parents. Sex ed, teaching character, and feeding them is just a few. School buses are an example of that. No kid has to walk 30 miles over hills through the snow to get to school anymore. In El Paso, if you live more than 2 miles from school, you get a free ride.
So for all the folks that think that these “handouts” from the Feds are bad, then ask your congressman or Senator to change them. The schools do only what the legislators allow them to do.
LikeLike
http://diario.mx/El_Paso/2013-12-05_4e2285a7/enfrentan-hambre-3-de-cada-10-ninos-pasenos-/
LikeLike
I believe in giving to the West Texas Food Bank and other local charities for the poor rather than using federal money to reward companies that hire lobbyists to obtain subsidies.
LikeLike