Reason Number Eleventy that I Support Our President
A new program enacted under President Obama’s Health, Hunger-Free Kids Act authorized the USDA to select up to three states to test the Community Eligibility Option, and long story short — all students in Detroit Public Schools will receive free breakfast, lunch and snacks.
Free healthy food for Detroit children!
That’s what Obama’s talkin’ about:
All Detroit Public Schools students will receive free breakfast, lunch and snacks in an effort to remove the stigma of being from a low-income family.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture program chose Michigan as one of three states to participate in the pilot program. Charter schools and districts in Michigan can participate if at least 40% of students are eligible for public assistance.
“One of the primary goals of this program is to eliminate the stigma that students feel when they get a free lunch, as opposed to paying cash,” said DPS Chief Operating Officer Mark Schrupp. “Some students would skip important meals to avoid being identified as low-income. Now, all students will walk through a lunch line and not have to pay. Low-income students will not be easily identifiable and will be less likely to skip meals.”
Although not required to participate, parents are still being asked to fill out a survey that includes income analysis to ensure that children, schools and the district will continue to receive millions of dollars in benefits and resources from the state and federal governments, as well as private grants. Program funding dependent on the surveys includes tutoring, after-school programs, field trips, technology and equipment, DDOT bus cards, free college testing, enrichment activities and others.
The Community Eligibility Option is among the early reforms enacted under President Obama’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which authorized the USDA to select up to three states to test the option in School Year 2011-12. A main factor in choosing the finalists was the prevalence of high-poverty areas. The option will be offered to more states in successive years, and will be available to all states beginning School Year 2014-15.
What’s the GOP talking about? How The Poors™ can’t be all that poor since, like, 96% of them have such luxuries as refrigerators.
Advantage, Obama.
Not sure that this is big or important enough to make the Keith Olbermann show. Nope.
Right? Makes much more sense to whinge about Deaniac, eh?
By the way, if you feed me links (as you come across them), I’ll try to give them the proper BWD treatment while you’re on hiatus. :)
unfortunately, this bill was paid for by cutting SNAP.
from the AOL
http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/13/healthy-hunger-free-kids-act-5-questions-answered-about-the-ne/
“4. How is the bill funded?
President Obama made a point of noting that the bill is already paid for. As reported by the Los Angeles Times:
The bill also increases the spending per meal by about 6 cents, President Obama noted. He said the money for funding the increase came from cuts in the food-stamp program but that he was committed to working with Congress to find a way to restore those funds.”
needless to say, congress never restored the funding. taking from the poor to give to the poor.
That is the kind of double speak he excels in. He got the first lady’s bill passed but did it on the back of the poor and for some reason he is getting shout outs of praise for it. Amazing, how tribalism affects the judgement of some.
Oh goody. The emos have arrived.
wooo go obama! master and commander of all things good! leader of the free world! do michelle’s bidding! wtf are you talking about tribalism?
dude. did you lose access to food stamps? are you not eating well because of the new act? I think they both deserve praise for undertaking something comprehensive, and starting the pilot in places that need it most. you make it sound like they abolished food stamps and are now rationing bread and water to kids for lunch.
We’ve already had a blog post here at ABLC devoted to, among other things, pointing out the glaring racist dogwhistle of your fetish word “Tribalism” when it comes to supporters of America’s first African-American president. And your brand of trolling. Read it to recognize yourself.
http://www.angryblacklady.com/2011/03/11/linfar-me-a-slightly-creepy-coda-to-the-dailykos-rainbowgirl-contretemps/
Dude, you just played the race card on the word ‘tribalism’.
How ’bout you just piss off douchebag. Take that other piece of shit emoprog fucknut with you. Take your votes and stuff em up your ass along with that 2X4 you got crammed in there.
Please don’t soil my blogspace with HuffnPuff links.
http://www.foodproductdesign.com/news/2010/08/senate-passes-healthy-hunger-free-kids-act.aspx
Looks like one cut doesn’t take place until 2013 and I take issue with your “it was paid for by…” language with respect to the other cut.
And in any event, if we retain control of the Senate, I bet you a donut we have a chance to reverse the cut.
Since the Emotarians are all about ideological vaporware, of course they’d be whinging about cuts that haven’t actually happened yet.
as a kid, i was lucky to have state paid free lunch tickets. i think that every kid should be provided a similar option. most parents sent their children to school with cash, but there was no guarantee that they would eat well or at all. why eat food when you could have…. candy! there wasn’t much stigma around using meal tickets, but that was probably avoided by having the pickup line before 730am on mondays. every kid that was on welfare just happened to be there early on monday, and that was all anyone else knew of it. i do remember missing the pickup line a few times and having to stretch my mom’s cash sparingly throughout the week, buying a ticket a day at the counter with all the other kids.
these changes will one day be looked back on as brilliant ideas, and any doubt of their positive impact will be forgotten, along with those who decry free lunch as socialism and unfair.
I remember having my 25¢ pack of cookies for lunch. Each bit had to taken slowly and you had to let it melt in your mouth, so it would be a meal. 3 cookies=lunch. This way, I could have a decent lunch. I wish they’d had programs like this when I was in JHS.
Your comment made me a bit teary because I can remember times of being hungry my own self when I was young. I sometimes wonder if people who get so up and evil about feeding our hungry ever felt that gnawing pain in the belly, drinking water to cool it down and dreaming about food. If you have ever been really hungry, how could you ever turn your back on a hungry child?
like any of these entitled emoprogs have ever gone hungry or known anyone who has.
that’s why they’re more concerned with sticking it to Republicans than helping folks in need. that’s why they impotently rage against obama 24/7.
Yeah, well, fuck them all sideways! I’m sick of all that sorry shit. I know that the Repugnants hate the needy but when the Left goes all goat turd nasty on the Prez when he is doing his best for those most in need they have trampled on my very last nerve.
The “emoprogs” are “useless as tits on a boar hog” as my Hubby’s Granny often said about worthless lazy people.
Steve Benen wrote this about Republicans/conservatives: “In general, conservatism isn’t pragmatic because policy outcomes aren’t the goal. Indeed, they’re largely irrelevant. As we’ve seen in too many instances, Republicans aren’t principally concerned with solving problems; their goals are ideological.”
Lets try a little experiment:
In general, the “Professional Left” isn’t pragmatic because policy outcomes aren’t the goal. Indeed, they’re largely irrelevant. As we’ve seen in too many instances, “Firebaggers and emo poutragers” aren’t principally concerned with solving problems; their goals are ideological.
Hey! It worked!
I remember way back when, one of the best things the (old) Black Panthers did was their free breakfast for school kids.
Two of my grandkiddos got free lunches after their Dad got laid off and couldn’t find work for over 18 months. It was a great help to their parents. Their school handles this in a good way because every child has a card with a code# that they give to the lunch lady, no one knows who pays or goes free or 1/2 price.
Bless our Prez and Michelle for feeding the children.
I grew up poor, although I don’t ever recall going hungry. That’s more a tribute to my mother’s ability to stretch food dollars than anything else. But I did know others who were worse off, and yes, it’s an awful thing. This is a great idea, and I’m interested in seeing the results. I hope for the best. There is no reason in this country that children should be going hungry.
I love hearing this. My daughter is almost five. By the grace of [insert deity of your choice here] she’s never gone hungry. But nobody else’s child should either.
This is change I do believe in. :)
This is great news; no child should go hungry in this world.
I have had B-Day parties for myself and have requested that people bring me food to take to the food bank instead of presents for me that would be more of a burden to buy anyways.
There are some charities that we donate to and all that you have to do is buy a goat or a bunch of chickens that will feed entire families for years. We choose the ones that will not ask poor people to change their religion believes/bribe them in any way. My B-Day is coming up and will be buying a goat to feed the poor as my preset; it feels great to us to give instead of receiving. NO, we are not rich just grateful that we do not go hungry anymore as we (my husband and I) did when we were children.
President Obama is doing a wonderful thing in this, to be sure.
I remember on Election Night in 2008 my friends and I were talking about what it might mean having kids in the White House again. Now we know – in their eyes he seen all the children of the nation.
And I remember earlier, working at a Republican event, listening to the proposals from the floor to remove “need” as a criterion for helping schoolchildren.
Make no mistake, the Republicans are about actively and willfully doing harm.
And by their grousing and whining, the emo-progs are doing harm as well, whether they realize it or not. (I think some of them do, and are as repellent as the Republicans in that regard – maybe worse, since that in fact makes them traitors.)