Lately, there have been some comments, jokes, and other shenanigans going around about the idea of ‘free lunch’ in schools. I’m going to refrain from referencing specific political figures, but I am going to write a little about the idea of ‘free lunch’ in schools. In my experience, hungry children are no laughing matter.
As we all know, there are many diverse student populations. While many of us are lucky enough to work in schools where the majority of students come in well fed, clothed, rested, and ‘ready to learn’ – there are others who work in schools where the majority of students come in hungry, tired, dirty, scared, or otherwise dealing with issues making them definitely not ‘ready to learn’. Yet, we persist.
We find clean, unripped clothes for them. We take time out of our planning and lunches to sit and chat with them. We call home. We call home. We call and call.
And we feed them. We feed them breakfast. We feed them lunch. We shove food we’ve bought with our money into backpacks on Friday afternoons and even go grocery shopping and deliver food to homes. We use our own money to start food pantries in the school so kids aren’t hungry over weekends and school vacations. We ensure our cafeterias are open all summer so there’s a safe place to get food.
We do whatever we have to do because these students are more than ‘students’ to us, they’re ‘our kids’ and we would never let our kids go hungry.
If you’re lucky enough to work in a school where free lunch isn’t necessary, count your blessings. The ‘free lunch’ we provide is so much more than ‘free lunch’ – we provide a little bit of food security, lots of love, and hopefully, help every child be ‘ready to learn’.
9 Comments
Mary Porter
Matt, this is beautiful!
Happy Rainbow
Thank you. 😀
Allison
You just summed up everything I have been thinking. Thank you.
Happy Rainbow
🙂
Michelle
That brought a tear to my eye. I remember my sister teaching kindergarten and first graders and telling me about the need. This was well written. Thank you.
I am going to keep and print if okay with you and when I hear one of these politicians say anything derogatory about feeding children I would love to send to them.
Happy Rainbow
I would love that. 😀
Monica Coates
You are so right! Through the years we have had siblings from a family of now 10, single mother and all these children in a very poor area of gov assisted living. Has she made the best choices, probably not. But we are not here to judge her,but to do the best we can to provide for the children in our care. Once you gain the trust of those children, they know you care and confide in you. For a teacher to offer a child an extra snack to take home and he have the heart to ask for six more at that time to take home so his younger brothers and sisters could have something to eat that evening… it just breaks your heart!
People have no idea what some children go through or live in. God bless the teachers and other educators who care enough to make a difference!
Md.Arman
This Was the post I was Searching For…
There was some confusion in my mind which has been cleared by this Post.
I praise the author for his writing skill and creativity.
Thanks for sharing the post and helping bloggers like us…
Michelle
Thank god for teachers who care.