I am a big food fan. I have my favorites, the same as everybody else. I don't care a great deal for vegetables, but I know they are vital to a body....so I do my best to eat them. I eat them, not only because they are good for me, but because I believe I am setting a good example to my stepson, by doing so. That being said, one thing I am not a fan of....is the breakfast/lunch, that is being served where he goes to school. He is a 1st grader at Carl Junction. It didn't really become an issue for me, until he invited his mother and myself to his school, for breakfast. What they served for breakfast, on this particular day was biscuits and gravy. At least that's what they were trying to have you believe they were serving. They had several flat oven pans that had some sort of bread material, they were scooping out and putting on a tray. There were also a few vats, filled with a type of white, fluid substance they were putting on top of the bread material. I use those words, "substance", and "material", because those were the best adjectives I could use to describe the food they were serving for breakfast that day. I couldn't believe my eyes! What in the world was this garbage!? Why are they charging us almost $30 dollars a week to feed him food, that couldn't have cost that much to feed the entire cafeteria!? If I were Governor of the state of Missouri, I wouldn't serve this junk to the inmates at a federal prison!
So, naturally I thought back to my old school days. I thought about what breakfast and lunch were like at my school, back when I was going. I attended school in Jasper, MO. Breakfast, actually hadn't been around all that long, when I was still attending school. They started the breakfast program, back when I was in junior high. Fridays were always biscuit and gravy day. They kept the gravy, from the Thursday lunch before (which was always a random meat and potato day), and added sausage to it to make sausage gravy. The biscuits were made fresh, even though they weren't homemade, they were more than edible. All in all, breakfast was certainly worth the .75 cents they charged us. Lunches could be hit and miss. But, if I had to put a percentage on it, I would say it would be about 85% hit, and 15% miss. The lunches back then were .90 cents, they would charge you an additional .10 cents if you wanted an extra entree. So, my lunch budget for the week would be roughly $7.00. Not $30!
Well, now I'm in a tough spot. Do, I continue to make my stepson go to school and continue to eat something, that if I saw a homeless person about to eat...I would warn them, that they might want to dine out of the dumpster down a few blocks, because it's that disgusting!? Or, do I pack a lunch for him and hope that over time, some bill gets passed and a few complaining parents get through to the right person, and a change is made for the better? I have to figure something out, because I can't go back to his school...and set a good example by injesting something that will make me vomit. Just a few stats for you.....according to the Food Research and Action Center, in 2010 the federal government spent $9.7 billion dollars on the school lunch program. The government charges the schools almost $3 a meal. What's interesting is that the government sends each school a cash disbursement, for their meals. Which means that it's up to the schools discretion, what vendor to use for food, how much they actually spend, etc. I wonder if they would open the books to the public, for us to see and make sure that this money is actually being spent on food?
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