I am a substitute at one school. Before Christmas, each teacher was asked to nominate children in their classrooms that would benefit from recieving a backpack filled with food every Friday. Then the counselor sent a note home with each child (entire school population) asking their parents if they needed help with food. About 200 forms (out of 1000) came back that they needed assistance. The counselor then sent home a 2nd form to those 200 kids asking for permission for their child to participate in the program. The counselor received about 100 forms back (it is a collaboration program between 3 agencies) and children cannot participate if the 2nd form wasnt turned in.
The program has been running for about 3 weeks now and I have been delivering the backpacks to the children. They are really nice backpacks (probably $50+ each). I get to one of the 2nd grade classes on Friday and drop off the backpacks for that class. As I drop off the backpacks to the next class, the 1st teacher calls me back and tells me one of the kids needs to speak to me. I'm thinking that the kid just wants to say hi so I go back. The kid comes out (a kid who receives a weekend backpack) with tears streaming down his face. I ask him what is wrong and he tells me he can't take the backpack home. I ask why (thinking it is too heavy) and he said his mom got mad the previous week about the contents in the backpack. It is a box of cereal, shelf stable milk, peanut butter, jelly, bread, granola bars, spaghetti noodles, spaghetti sauce, and a few other things.
I calm him down and told him we would figure it out. I tell the counselor what had happen and she said that she would call mom. I was in the adjoining room next to the counselors office when she was talking to mom. Mom had told the little boy she didn't want generic foods and he could only bring home the backpack if it had "real" brands in it. Mom then proceeded to tell the counselor that the school should buy these families gift cards to the store instead of giving them "junk".
I worked as a counselor for a few yrs. We were allowed to access case management if kids were in need of food, clothing, or a few extra items. 1 day a mom came in all upset. She told me they were broke and had no food for their kids. They were starving.
I was a bit naïve then.
I told her not to worry! Case managers would be happy to run to the food bank and deliver the food to her door.
Her countenance changed. I don't remember her exact words, but they were to the effect of my kids won't eat that junk. ( A lot of it is healthy. Beans, cheese, powdered milk, rice, yogurt, stuff like that) She told me the kids were picky eaters and only ate things like corn dogs, hamburgers, and pizzas.
I was a bit irked and shocked.
Nowadays, very little shocks me!
How sad that the child won't eat because his mother has issues. I would make a report to Human Services that children are not being feed in that household.
Oh wow. There is something totally wrong with this. Totally agree with Zia. That aren't that hungry. But I feel so much for that poor child who is in such a difficult place. It is so unfair to put him in that position. My heart just goes out to him.
When one company did lunches, we were legally able to give the away extras. The companies after claimed we couldn't legally give them once the serving time was over. We used to leave them in a discrete area any student or family has access to. Guess what? NONE of the families took them.
How awful for that child. I’ll never understand some people. I agree with others that they must not be that hungry. It’s still confusing and embarrassing for the child.
That's awful! What's with some people? I have bought store brands whenever possible my entire adult life to help save a little money to have for things like my kids' college tuition and my mortgage, both of which are all paid up. Geesh!!!
lines once a month to receive "surplus foods" (cheese, peanut butter, lentils, butter, powdered milk, canned meats, powdered eggs, flour, rice, etc.), I am so thankful that my mom was an excellent cook and made use of every item we received.
Now that we have food stamp programs, which allow people to "choose their own food" (or swap the foodstamps for cigarettes, etc.), children have suffered because parents cannot make good choices (many reasons for that, which I will not go into). By elementary school, children's palates are already ruined by eating fast food since they were toddlers. Of course they do not like the taste of whole foods or foods that have to be prepared. Chances are, parents have no clue how to even prepare them.
Yes, this shows entitlement, ignorance, etc., and we are outraged. How dare they think they deserve to eat what they want?
OTOH, we are being told on a daily basis how wonderful the economy is doing and how unemployment is the lowest ever, etc., etc. How do we put that together with the fact that one in five kids is not getting enough to eat?
Something is wrong with this picture. A whole lot of somethings.
When I worked in a CA district, we had trucks pulling up every Friday at various schools, from big grocery stores, that distributed weekend food, a certain number of pounds per kid enrolled. Parents had to bring their own bags and boxes and line up outside the school. For some families with four or five kids enrolled, that was a lot of food. I recall seeing fresh vegies and fruits and lots of canned goods.
We have made the American dream visible to everyone (via Internet and TV), but not achievable for all. So many layers to this problem, it's not funny.
Yes, how dare they! Can you go to a store (food related or not) and pick any thing you want with no money? No, that's not how it works. When we groom children to believe their entitled to what they want when they want they're going to follow through with these beliefs as adults. To rephrase this, how dare someone rob you. That's not the same, right?
I’m not sure how I would know which students to nominate. We don’t have access to their financial situations or who is on free or reduced lunch prices.
I find it interesting that the backpacks are delivered to the children in the classrooms. Is this in front of other students? Our schools would want it done in a more subtle way.
our school also participates in the backpack program--i assume it's the same or works in the same way.
our social worker initially pulls kids into the hallway to either give them a backpack or find out which is theirs--then on fridays she discreetly puts the food in those backpacks--not in front of all the kids.
Our kids get items that don’t require much prep since some parents can’t or won’t cook. And some don’t have resources to cook. (Electric off. Stove broken. Living with whoever takes them in.)
The hungry kids eat whatever they get. All of our kids get free breakfast and lunch. Hungry kids eat everything and each meal because they are truly hungry. We have a few who complain that they don’t get enough food, then parents are all over social media posting pictures of how little their kids have on their plates when the truth is that they turned their nose up to the green beans or the peas or the fruit because they don’t t like it.
No matter what there are always going to be those who complain. This time it's backpack contents. But, there are about 100 backpacks and one complainer. There are plenty of happy parents and one unhappy.
The program should give mom the option to drop out. She can buy the brand name items herself or search the local food banks for them if that's what she prefers.
a program whereby we introduced a fruit or vegetable to students once a month. It came with a lot of paper, but basically, they would deliver blueberries or green peppers or broccoli or tangerines, etc., to the classroom. We would read about the food and then everyone got a sample. You would be amazed how many students had never seen what I would consider ordinary types of produce. I was always worried that some kid would have an allergic reaction to eating a never-before-eaten food. Didn't happen to any of my students, thank goodness. The kids often hated the raw fruit or vegetable.
Also, at lunch, when they served fresh fruits, we would always see dozens of pears or apples or oranges in the trash with one bite or one section removed. So sad.
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01-18-2020, 03:25 PM
