The image below tells us about another feral initiative:
We’re not qualified to comment on the necessity of the program.
We do wonder how if it has been judged to be important to offer free food it makes sense to stop serving the food when the district is on vacation July 3-7. Are the kids to go hungry?
We also wonder what the district means when they write “All meals are free of charge and without eligibility or restrictions”. Do they mean eligibility of the person doing the eating? And when they say no restrictions do they mean that anything goes?
We do know that we deserve better.
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Brutus, they offer the free meals to anyone who shows. No evidence behind this, but my guess is that it is the leftover Breakfast in a Classroom from the regular year. To a hungry child “C” Ration biscuits and peanut butter are a feast.
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I doubt if it is “leftover” anything. I believe that this is not unique to El Paso, and I do not understand why you would be against it, Brutus. I’d say it is a nice thing for working parents, and for anyone at all who might want to take advantage of it.
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I did not say I was either for or against the program. In fact I asked how it makes sense to stop feeding the kids for a week right in the middle of the program.
Brutus
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Public discourse is a challenging undertaking. Hang in there.
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Brutus, this program is pretty much at all schools districts across the nation. Surely you aren’t against feeding hungry kids are you? This website has the guidelines and locations: https://www.fns.usda.gov/sfsp/summer-food-service-program
“In 2016, the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) provided meals to 2.8 million children each day at 47,981 sites during the program’s peak month of July. SFSP served more than 153 million meals and snacks at a cost to USDA of $472 million in fiscal 2016, primarily during summer vacation.
SFSP sites are administered by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and include schools, camps, parks, playgrounds, housing projects, community centers, churches, and other public sites where children gather in the summer. Sites are eligible to offer free USDA-funded meals and snacks:
If the sites operate in areas where at least half of the children come from families with incomes at or below 185 percent of the Federal poverty level, or
If more than half of the children served by the site meet this income criterion (see FNS’s Summer Food Service Program).
Many low-income children also obtain free meals while school is out through the Seamless Summer Option of the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs (see FNS’s School Meals).”
Personally, I would much rather see my tax dollars used to feed hungry kids than to pay for a weekend golf get away at Mara Lago. But that is just me.
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I personally would like to see my tax dollars invested in buying EPISD a private plane for Mr. Cabrera with all that first class travel he is doing all over the country it may be a savings that can be passed on to free lunches. EPISD spends 4 times as much flying it’s innovative leader all over the country and riding him in luxury SUV’s than any other district in the region. So, tell me, are the standardized testing scores four times better? I heard EPISD has the LOWEST scores in the region. GO EPISD!
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Didn’t we pay for Obama’s golf outings too?
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Cranky old men indeed! Maybe Cabrera can kill the birds that fly over your back yard and piss you off. He can feed them to hungry kids.
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Brutus makes a good point. If children are starving how do you rationalize taking a week off.
Here’s information from the Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The National School Lunch Program cost $11.6 billion in FY 2012. By comparison, the lunch program’s total cost in 1947 was $70 million; in 1950, $119.7 million; in 1960, $225.8 million; in 1970, $565.5 million; in 1980, $3.2 billion; in 1990, $3.7 billion; and in 2000, 6.1 billion.
There are requirements to qualify for the program and USDA has a form to fill out. The price of lunch depends on how much income the child’s family declares. Some lunches are free to the child, some cost a little. Districts get reimbursed $2.93 for each free lunch, $2.53 for reduced-price lunches, and 28 cents for “paid” lunches.
Schools must serve lunches that meet federal requirements which includes more vegetables than in past years. According to the USDA, many of the children will not eat the vegetables.
I have two issues with the program.
1) Median in the US has not gone down in the years this program has been existence, yet more and more is spent on it each year. Some suggest the program continues to grow more for the benefit of farmers and suppliers than children.
2) If the USDA requires qualification for the free meals, why is EPISD giving them to any child who shows up? A well-off mother may send her child to school this summer for breakfast and/or lunch if she doesn’t feel like cooking. In reality, it is probable that few children will show up for breakfast which is served 7:30 – 8:30 am.
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SISD,Clint ISD, YISD, County of El Paso, as well as others are also offering Summer Lunch programs. Many are ending their programs on the last working day of June.
Maybe a better question Brutus, is why, in the richest nation in the world, do we still have hungry kids in need of free lunches?
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If there are hungry kids maybe we first need to look at their families.
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This is a federally funded program across the country, not paid by local taxpayer $. Even if my county tax dollars were paying for this, I’d consider it a much better investment than the superintendent’s salary or “work” trips. I see nothing wrong with feeding children across the community who may not otherwise have a healthy meal when school is not in session.
When they state there are no restrictions, it means means you do not have to be from the district and you do not have to apply for free and reduced lunch. Anyone 1-18 qualifies.
The reason why they are not serving during the first week of July is because the district is closed and there are no summer classes at that time. Without summer school students there, it’s hard to predict how many community members would still come. Food, energy, and employee costs would be wasted.
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Not to excuse EPISD but there is a Texas Department of Agriculture Squaremeals Summer Feeding Program. You can find locations by texting foodtx to 877877.
http://www.squaremeals.org/Programs/SummerFeedingPrograms.aspx
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This IS that program. 😂 All of you can learn more about it by actually clicking on this link and informing yourselves. You’ll see all of the EPISD sites when doing a search for a location near you.
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Yes, Brutus, the kids will miss the meals provided at the school during the holidays, but do not worry too much. The meals are often poorly prepared and hardly edible, so we are able to punish those kids for the sin of choosing the wrong parents. And they can revert to eating the Jr. Mints and drinking the Big Red soda in the places they live. A country that can afford to pay for Donald Trump’s golfing weekends while further enriching him can afford to spend much more on food. Luckily, you and I will die before it happens, but there is a day coming when there simply will be no jobs and unless we prepare for that day, our grandchldren will be lucky if such programs exist.
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Follow the money. We’ve turned school lunches into an industry that lobbies Washington for money to feed their businesses via free lunch and breakfast programs. Yes, hungry students can’t study. But why are they hungry? Do their parents not get food stamps and other safety net resources? Does anyone track the combined number of welfare services the families of kids in the program are also accessing? How much school food is thrown out because students won’t eat it? Chances are the answer to all questions is no. Because there is no interest in shrinking it, ensuring it focuses on those with greatest need or improving food quality. It is all about expanding services so the supply chain that makes money makes more money.
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Good points about the parents already getting assistance. Yes, the amount spent on free meals grows every year. Any politician who tries to stop the increase or reduce expenses will be vilified for taking food out the mouths of babes. The agricultural lobby will see to that. Granted, 14 billion is not much compared to the defense budget, for example, but if food is being thrown out and free lunchers are not eating the vegetables (USDA says this) it isn’t worth it.
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Speaking of free food, yesterday on KVIA 4-5 news a Union President while praising the EPISD employees and how they know better than anyone else how to help the students mentioned that even the food service people know which kids have hungry brothers and sisters at home and will give them extra food to take home. I could not believe it when I heard it but I would like to warn any EPISD employees if they get caught doing this they could be fired.
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