There is No Free Lunch

My wife is an amazing shopper. She smells out bargains like sharks smell blood in the water. She loves deals so much that after I buy her a gift, she's guaranteed to love it more if I got it on sale.

"Deals" and savings, however, are sometimes illusory. Have you ever had a post-shopping conversation where the shopper justifies an receipt by boasting how much they saved? Sure I spent $250, but I saved $75! As this very simple example exhibits, there is a cost that comes with these savings.

Our kids are on a traditional school schedule, so we just started back to school after labor day. Among the myriad of forms, letters, and disclosure notices (honestly, how many times do we need to print our name, address, phone numbers, DOBs, next of kin, emergency contacts, blood types) thrust at us by our school's dutiful faculty was the see-if-you-qualify form for the "free lunch" program.

What shocked us this year was that one of the teachers told us that the forms were to be filled out by everyone, regardless of income. Why we asked? Is it too much to require the allegedly needy to ask for it? Why does everyone need to fill this out? Heck we feed our children! This teacher's response was so telling: "because you may qualify for free lunch and not know it." In essence: you could be getting free lunch!

Folks, anyone who tells you school lunch is free clearly does not understand how the world works.

First, some brief discussion on the history of the "National School Lunch Program."

The program, paid for by the Federal Government started in the 1946. It's origins may surprise you. The goal of the program had nothing to do with poverty, starving children or child obesity. It was started as an effort to bulk-up America's youth for the military. Apparently too many would-be soldiers were being turned down for service due to poor nutrition. So Congress faced with the advent of the cold war and a need to combat the commies thought it would be a great idea for the Federal Government to feed kids directly.

Once again that when the government gets involved, it becomes so self-perpetual that even when the original goals of the program are met or become irrelevant, the program remains!

Any idea on what this program costs? Eight billion dollars a year. In 2008, nearly 31 million students in 101,650 schools and residential childcare institutions participated in the program.

Does anyone really believe that, were it not for this program, 31 million little kids would starve?

The Dept of Agriculture, who administers the program (I know, we really do still have a Dept. of Agriculture) of course touts the nutritional value of the food being served. From their website "[the program requires]... that lunches meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and provide at least minimum calorie levels and one-third of Recommended Dietary Allowances of protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, and calcium."

Next time you talk to a teacher, ask them about the lunch program and kids who receive the "free" lunches. They will tell you that for the most part it is wasted. Also, teachers I've talked to express widespread cynicism that the receivers are truly needy. Kids ignore the fresh fruits and healthy food, and throw away huge percentages of their lunches. And why shouldn't they? After all, can we really expect them to appreciate something they are being told is being given to them for free?

What has started as a lunch program has now blossomed into summertime lunches (they call it seamless summer), breakfast, and after school snacks. There's even a "Special Milk" fund!

What are we really teaching children when tell them they are being fed for free, especially when its a eight billion dollar lie? Is this really how life works? You just show up everyday and someone feeds you. Sure!

Why stop with breakfast and lunch? Let's have the Federal government pay for dinner! I propose that we have the Federal government, via the taxpayers cover three square meals a day. While we're at it, there are too many poor children with messy hair. I propose we start a National Shampoo and Hair Gel Program!

Would these children really go hungry without the "free" lunches? Even without the lunch program, the Federal Government spent thirty four billion dollars on food stamps last year.

Is it really too much to ask parents to feed their own children?

I told our son's teacher that even if we did qualify (and with five kids, we probably do) we wouldn't take the free lunch for our kids. Why not?

Because there is no such thing as a free lunch.