National School Lunch Act Case Study

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In 1946 President Harry Truman approved the National School Lunch Act. This law provides free or low-cost, nutritional meals in education or childcare areas. This law has helped many students eat during the school days Unfortunately sometimes there are mix-ups and paperwork gets lost, like Caitlin Dolan from Cannonsburg. Her lunch was thrown away in front of all of her friends and schoolmates in the cafeteria because of an unpaid lunch from the former year. Later when she went home to her mom they had figured out the paperwork for her reduced price-free lunches had gotten lost. Caitlin was humiliated obviously. She is a perfect example of lunch shaming. A very real problem in many schools by cafeteria workers and students when a child …show more content…

Having this type of system causes a class divide of students who are embarrassed because they need a free lunch. The division of kids cause issues like resentment among the other students who have to pay full price for their lunch, or causes embarrassment for the kids who can’t afford their lunch. According to CNN money, Many cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia and Dallas are trying to reduce the “stigma” that comes with getting a free meal by the school changing their prodigal like filling out paperwork and such (CNN money, 2015). These cities are making a difference in the schools by not letting the class divide of students become and issue. The kids who have to wear wristbands, get stamps, get sticker and are labeled for needing a free lunch is humiliating and unnecessary. Having kids all be provided with free meals will erase the division of the kids who are to humilated to get a free meal at school. If every student was able to have free food provided by the school no one would know who actually needs a free lunch. It also comes full circle with kids who are eating the free nutritious meals being fed to learn more. The more comfortable the kids are getting free meals the more likely they are to actually get one. When a child can’t afford a lunch during the school day it usually can cause issues in the cafeteria due to the embarrassment of the student. The experts from nutrition group lobbies observe that almost 60 percent of lunches are served with the reduced price or free lunch program, and only 9 percent of that is reduced price (Nutrition group lobbies). With that information it's understandable that there is a whole nother 30 percent of students not getting a free lunch. Instead of excluding the kids who need to get free meals that excludes the kids who don't need to get free meals. The class division causes problems

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