Growing up, we just told the teacher if it was hot lunch or sack lunch in elementary school. Then she would call for all the lunch money, those who had it took it up. I was on reduced lunch until highschool and i don't remember ever noticing who had lunch money and who didn't. In middleschool and Highschool, everyone scanned their school ID if they ate in the cafeteria. You had to pay the cashiers but most people paid a week or month at a time with checks from their parents. Just because the person in front of you didn't pay that day, it didn't necessarily mean they had free lunch.
The kids in the district I work all have a pin number. There's nothing to identify those students on free and reduced lunch, at least not in the cafeteria. I also eat school lunch 3-5 times per month and they aren't terrible. Actually, they're better than the crap I normally eat at lunch when I go out. At least I'm guaranteed 2 veggies and 2 fruit servings along with a protein.
Where I lived, the lunch was the same whether it was free or not. I have no idea what the "system" was for it, because I don't think I knew anyone on free lunch. We paid for lunch in cash so someone not paying in cash would have caught my eye. I believe the amount of kids using free lunch was very low, though. I grew up in an affluent suburb- according to wiki, 2.4% of families were below the poverty line in 2000 and the median household income was over 100,000.
When I was a kid we had cards they stamped. Yellow was regular, pink was reduced lunch, and orange was free. Which was a horrible system as I can very much remember the one kid who has orange and the one kid who had pink.
Now it is all electronic so there would be no way to know.
This, except in our school *only* the reduced and free lunch kids had cards; everyone else just paid in cash. I always felt bad for the kids with their cards when everyone else had cash. Which is a silly way to feel, of course, but that's kids for you. It's good that most schools use the card system so everyone's form of payment is the same.
I deal with the lunch program for my building. There is no difference between free, reduced, and paid lunches. The kids are not identified in any way regarding their status. All lunch money is paid in the office, so no one even sees that. Our menu is pretty decent. I wish we offered m ore protein at breakfast.
I deal with the lunch program for my building. There is no difference between free, reduced, and paid lunches. The kids are not identified in any way regarding their status. All lunch money is paid in the office, so no one even sees that. Our menu is pretty decent. I wish we offered m ore protein at breakfast.
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RR- Did you know the USDA is getting ready to announce changes to the new meal requirements? Supposedly they are getting rid of the bread and protein max requirements.
I deal with the lunch program for my building. There is no difference between free, reduced, and paid lunches. The kids are not identified in any way regarding their status. All lunch money is paid in the office, so no one even sees that. Our menu is pretty decent. I wish we offered m ore protein at breakfast.
Sent from my DROID3 using proboards
RR- Did you know the USDA is getting ready to announce changes to the new meal requirements? Supposedly they are getting rid of the bread and protein max requirements.
I find what is served in school lunches fascinating. Have you seen the British girl's blog about what is served around the world? neverseconds.blogspot.com/
It got a lot of press for a while because her school (in the UK) asked her to stop taking pictures, but then started serving healthier options. Now kids from around the world send in pictures of their lunches.
The variety in what we eat on a normal basis is amazing.
Post by statlerwaldorf on Dec 6, 2012 1:20:51 GMT -5
We were given cards that they would hole punch. Parents could also buy the cards, so you couldn't really tell if someone was on free lunches or if their parents just liked to pay ahead of time.
The lunches were gross. I liked the nasty pizza with canned corn. If we didn't like the hot meal served that day, we could get a sack meal instead. It had pb&j, carrots and celery sticks, and a fruit.
I got reduced lunches (.40) per day...with tickets, I wasn't embarrassed and I don't remember anyone shaming me.
I thought our lunches were pretty good, I work in a hospital now and could easily compare the two. We had french fries every day which looking back is so unhealthy. Some one mentioned mexican pizza...that stuff was the shit. And the holiday lunch with turkey/stuffing was awesome as well.
At full price, I think our lunches were 1.55. I still think that's reasonable, I think even if you had packing lunches down to a science it would be hard to top that price. We bought most days
Our school system uses a pin method. I can go online and pay however much at a time that I want. If the balance goes below a certain amount, I get an email telling me. If I forget, she can buy 3 lunches before they make her do a sandwich and milk.
I'm so surprised about the sandwich thing. We let our kids get $30 in the negative before we send home a naughty letter, we will have sent general statements up to that point. We have never given a kid just a sandwich and milk.
I'm so surprised about the sandwich thing. We let our kids get $30 in the negative before we send home a naughty letter, we will have sent general statements up to that point. We have never given a kid just a sandwich and milk.
$5 negative is as far as C's school will go. Which I totally understand. It was all by fault that there was not money on the account.
I actually start getting automated phone calls when his account goes below $10. "Bordin has low lunch account balance"
Post by dr.girlfriend on Dec 6, 2012 13:55:59 GMT -5
All I remember from my day is that school lunches had to have all four food groups, but they counted ketchup as a vegetable and peanut butter as a meat. So if something didn't have a vegetable, you'd get a little tiny dixie cup full of ketchup with it, and if it didn't have any meat you'd get peanut butter. So, like, a slice of cheese pizza and a cup of peanut butter. :-P
Post by statlerwaldorf on Dec 6, 2012 14:01:28 GMT -5
I don't know how negative they allow the local students to get, but there was an article in the paper about the remaining balance from unpaid student lunches and it was a large amount.
I'm so surprised about the sandwich thing. We let our kids get $30 in the negative before we send home a naughty letter, we will have sent general statements up to that point. We have never given a kid just a sandwich and milk.
Where I used to work, we had to cut it off at $5 bc we had $40,000 in negative balances.
I'm so surprised about the sandwich thing. We let our kids get $30 in the negative before we send home a naughty letter, we will have sent general statements up to that point. We have never given a kid just a sandwich and milk.
Where I used to work, we had to cut it off at $5 bc we had $40,000 in negative balances.
I just pulled it up out of curiosity. Our district currently has $888.22 in negative balances. Not too bad.
Did you guys used to get milk delivery in the middle of the day straight to your classroom? I remember that but I'm not sure which grades it was. Maybe k-3?