$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Sending bs fundraiser stuff home that poor kids can't participate in or if they do it's a huge burden on their family. Please for the love of all that is holy let me send in a check instead of trying to con my coworkers into buying overpriced wrapping paper and waxy chocolates.
Last year a lot of kids had a really rough home life. 75% of them didn't eat lunch because their parents couldn't afford it and didn't apply for free lunch, no coat or whatever.
National School Lunch Program (NSLP) provides eligible students with free or reduced-price lunch (FRPL)2
The percentage of students in a United States1 school who are eligible for can provide a substitute measure for the concentration of low-income students in the school.3
Eligibility for Free School Lunch:
-Foster youth; homeless, migrant, or runaway youth; or Head Start participants may receive free lunches by default.
-Children in households that receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits, and Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservation benefits.
-Children in households with incomes at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level.
-If your household income is between 130 and 186 percent of the federal poverty level, your children can receive reduced-price school meals, which means they can be charged no more than 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch (18).
My parents never once did the candy grams for me or sent money for snacks or anything. It really sucked so my view all these years has been trying to make sure I do those things for my daughter because I remember how bad it felt.
Last year I was part of handing them out and saw some kids didn’t get them and I was like NEVER AGAIN.
Thank you for making sure these littles have the excitement of being included, regardless of their socioeconomic background.
The below graphic shows public schools (including both traditional and charter) divided into categories by FRPL eligibility4:
[% students at the school that qualify for Free or Reduced Priced Lunch (FRPL)]
-Low-poverty schools = 25.0% or less of the student body are eligible
-Mid-low poverty schools = 25.1% to 50.0%
-Mid-high poverty schools = 50.1% to 75.0%
-High-poverty schools = 75.0%
In fall 2021, about 10.5 million students attended high-poverty (meaning 75% of the student body qualifies for FRPL) schools5 (19).
I grew up the “poor” kid (solid middle class) in an extremely wealthy suburb and from that I will always fight for those with less. Our booster club moms are the stereotypical sorority moms with part time jobs (MLM, travel agents, realtors) they do for fun not money. I come home pissed from every meeting because they don’t understand working class families and how much they potentially sacrifice for their kid to be at that sport. I just don’t understand how we haven’t moved past the mean girl stereotype and I fucking hate it. No advice, just commiseration that I will fight for the less privileged always.
Seriously, everyone I know right now in this area is struggling financially - who the fuck can afford to spend $3-4 per candy bar/card? I can't even imagine (as an adult) going up to someone else in this area right now and being like "So, I know that things are a bit tough right now with - rent/land payments/house repairs/medical bills/grocery costs/etc., etc., etc. - everything, but want to spend the little money you DO have on this garbage??"
Sources:
(1) https://carolinemaguireauthor.com/help-a-kid-who-is-being-ostracized-feeling-left-out/
(2) https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/how-to-talk-with-parents-about-cliques-and-exclusion/
(3) https://afineparent.com/positive-parenting-faq/social-exclusion.html
(4) https://psychcentral.com/health/why-feeling-left-stings-and-healthy-ways-to-cope#why-it-bothers-you
(6) https://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/04/rejection
(7) https://gsdrc.org/topic-guides/social-exclusion/causes/exclusion-based-on-social-status-or-identity/
(8) https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/bullying-kids-teens
(9) https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1368214/full
(10) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22889163/
(11) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740924000148
(12) https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1184924.pdf
(13) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6085085/
(14) (https://conversationstoremember.org/loneliness-and-isolation/#:~:text=Loneliness%2C%20on%20the%20other%20hand,of%20a%20hostile%20social%20environment.)
(15) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022519321003581
(16) https://elifesciences.org/articles/78246
(17) https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statistics
No comments:
Post a Comment