The U.S. Department of Agriculture is supporting a Bush administration edict to end a well-regarded Philadelphia school breakfast and lunch program, according to a high-ranking USDA official.This was/is a pilot program...THAT WAS INSTITUTED SEVENTEEN (17) YEARS AGO!!!
Antihunger advocates are outraged, saying many poor children who normally get free lunch and breakfast may go without if the USDA ends the program, the only one of its kind in the country.
Known as Universal Feeding, the program allows more than 120,000 students in poor schools to eat free meals without having to fill out applications. Children and their families in poor communities don't always complete such forms. The USDA, however, is insisting that paperwork be used, which will result in fewer poor children eating, advocates say.
Here's the bonus question:
Why do you suppose they stopped requiring students and parents to fill out applications for the free food? The excuse used was that so many children qualified from "poor families" that they believed it didn't make sense to require qualification any more. I don't think that was the reason at all.
Perhaps:
1. Funding for the next year was based on spending from the previous year (like all government boondoggle...pilot programs).My thoughts fall along the line that without these bogus give-away tax funded entitlements...maybe folks will think twice about having a family they can't afford. Or not.
2. Or...maybe the majority of recipients shouldn't be in this country to begin with...
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