@Lumeinshin @LukeAlmighty @renwillis SCHOOL LUNCHES ARE BADLND AID? WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTFFTTTTTT

@Lumeinshin @renwillis
Yes...
And I am quite pissed by how much people are begging for even bigger centralized bandaids.

@LukeAlmighty @renwillis
I knew a few kids who had school lunches and whilst I think that they did benefit somewhat, I do worry if all it does is encourage scumbag parents to just take advantage of them forever, rather than be the stop-gap for when times are tough that they were supposed to be, same with pretty much all social schemes sadly

Often times those kids had many more issues too that told me it wasnt just money that was the issue sadly. I knew one that had a parent on bennies that was DEFINITELY faking his issue. Others that just didnt take care of their kid, etc etc.
Even when my family were in a council house scraping by, me and my sibling managed to have a packed lunch, although I think we were always a bit too prideful to accept a benefits scheme, when it probably would've benefited us during those tougher times.

@Lumeinshin @LukeAlmighty @renwillis

If a school lunch or breakfast is a child's main source of a nutritious meal then I honestly worry for those children because what was on offer was not my idea of having a nutritious meal. It's also no dinner with a lot of vegetables on it which is much better.

It's definitely getting more expensive to feed children though, let alone to feed ourselves. We also forget, programs like this will also make it harder for people to feed their own children because of the tax increase for it. So it is a double-edged sword.

@Lumeinshin @LukeAlmighty @renwillis I think that if we're going to feed children then we should feed them a small hot dinner. Make sure there are plenty of seasonal vegetables and different ways they are prepared. Anything else is easy for a parent to put together, even a child can do those after a certain point in the cases of neglect.

@sim @LukeAlmighty @renwillis
I think the cost of say fruit and vegetables and such is worth it in terms of encouraging less processed foods, since a school can buy in bulk I think its not a bad idea. And I say that as someone who had waaaay too much sweets and such so my tastebuds are kind of fucked atm and dont think bananas or apples are sweet at all.
I think we can all agree those kinds of practical things would be more beneficial to be taught in school, cooking, gardening, farming etc. (and i think we've had a few long threads already about that)

@Lumeinshin @LukeAlmighty @renwillis

Yeah, I think that I would be more supportive of this. I was just thinking, how can we support children in some of the worst households short of moving them? I definitely thought that having more cooking classes would be beneficial, if they can't be during the school term then they can be before or after school clubs that teach children how to cook. Then they can at least apply those skills in households where parents struggle to cook, but maybe they've got food in the cupboard. Especially in single parent households where a parent is just too busy. By taking dinner out of their hands at a young age, those children get a good meal from an adult. It's not difficult to put together cereal into a bowl or to put together a sandwich when they get home.

I like the idea of also teaching them how to garden and farm. Can use that local produce for school meals then. Don't know if we've had a long thread about that specifically though.