POLITICS + CULTURE

Children Need Food To Grow. Why Is This So Controversial?

Waukesha, Wisconsin school district claims feeding kids would “become spoiled.”

Of all the ridiculous stories I’ve heard this year, this may well take the cake. Waukesha, Wisconsin, school district just turned down a universal meal plan for students in the middle of a pandemic. They claimed that if they gave them free meals at school, children would “become spoiled.” Excuse me, that’s obscene. Have they no decency? Apparently not.

Kids need food to grow. I shouldn’t have to write this, but obviously, some conservatives need to hear this. At my elementary school, I was one of the few students who did not qualify for free lunch. But, I never thought the kids receiving free lunch were spoiled. They needed food just like anyone else, and I couldn’t imagine a world where they would have to go back to class hungry.

My generation benefited from the hard work of the Black Panthers, whose Free Breakfast for School Children Program laid the groundwork for America’s national free and low-cost lunch program. Before that, even poor white kids went to school hungry. We made so much progress. So, why does it feel like our society is moving in retrograde? Why can’t we agree that kids need to eat regular…