[ExI] can't feed em

[spike at rainier66.com]

California's Silicon Valley is a prosperous area, but it has a few spots
where grinding poverty perisists.  

 

An associate (widowed mother of 2) was explaining to me a problem they had
with her son gaining weight like crazy and she couldn't figure out why,
given his diet, which she strictly controls (and knows what she is doing.)
I had been with the boy on a scout campout recently: oh MERCY can that kid
wolf down the chow, my goodness.  He eats like three of me with change left
over.  

 

Come to find out. she was sending him to school with a nutritionally
balanced sack lunch after a nutritionally balanced breakfast, but. he had
gotten himself on a list for free lunch without her permission.  Then their
school started offering free breakfast for those who qualified (he did
(secretly.))  So he was eating at home, eating school breakfast, eating
school lunch in addition to his own from-home lunch, then coming home for a
fifth meal in the evening.  Adipose resulted.

 

I wouldn't have learned of it but for a thorny problem our local school
system faces.  The district where my associate's children attend school have
nearly half their students eligible for free lunch and free breakfast (she
lives in a scary neighborhood down there.)  The school building where we
have our scout meetings hangs in the balance: they are contemplating
closure.  If they do, we must suspend our scout meetings for lack of a
venue.  Our local school district has already put in place remote-learning
options should they close, which will happen if even one local corona virus
case is found, even if not a school employee or student.  We have Skype and
FaceTime, and every student has access to internet from home as far as we
know.

 

However. a few of the local families are partially dependent on that school
to feed their children one meal a day (we don't have free breakfast at this
school.)  The San Jose school district previously mentioned is intensely
dependent on school to feed their children.  Both districts are heavily
dependent on providing free daycare for their children while the parents
work their asses off.

 

In one form or another, both districts have said they have no idea how to
provide these social services to the families who have come to depend on
them in the event of a corona-related shutdown.  A school is not set up to
prepare and deliver meals, or to provide babysitters.  I didn't realize how
big a problem we have until I heard of someone in that situation.

 

spike

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