SALT LAKE CITY — Now that a pandemic-era relief program is over, Utah families are once again being asked to cover the costs of meals fed to their children at school.
Of the requests, 35 of 41 districts responded with the total meal debt statewide surpassing $1.7 million. “There aren’t penalties, but in order to receive that diploma you will have to pay that debt if it's outstanding,” Sampson said. According to data provided by the district, at this point in the spring of 2019 – the last year families were required to pay for school meals – the Weber School District had an outstanding lunch debt of $23,000. “It does put parents in a hard position of being able to pay for rent or to pay for a school lunch,” Parr said. “We are not debt collectors. We want to feed the kids. We want to serve them good food and make sure they are ready to learn.
“We will look at our numbers and reevaluate and determine whether it's financially feasible. Because we are paying for it out of district funds that can be challenging,” he said.“There is a huge lunch deficit,” said Amber Mackowiak, the owner of Crazy Daisy Productions. “I think it would be fantastic if kids didn’t have to worry about it.”
JFRANCHIREPORTS And yet they throw away food like massive amounts and won't give that to any of the kids that don't have food...
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JFRANCHIREPORTS We had $20,000 debt in Gaston County, NC. Our church paid it off. A little extra to fund the end of the school year.
JFRANCHIREPORTS How about instead of wasting time on social media laws, make a real difference and provide better for our kids. Free meals at school, protect them from school shootings because that's still a REAL issue.
JFRANCHIREPORTS But let’s send Billions and Billions to Ukraine. 🤪
JFRANCHIREPORTS Could Utah legislature pay for lunch and breakfast at schools from public school funds? Would funding meals meet criteria? They had plenty to cut tax by $208M.
JFRANCHIREPORTS Go read these pathetic comments! It is YOUR responsibility to feed your kids and nobody else’s!!! What a sickening lack of accountability in today’s society that so many believe the surplus (or anyone else!) should pay for your kid to eat. FREAKING MADDENING! 🤬
JFRANCHIREPORTS So it's school's fault parents don't feed their kids?
JFRANCHIREPORTS Pay ur bills parents
JFRANCHIREPORTS Utah had so much extra money. We should have paid school lunches for students.
JFRANCHIREPORTS That's pretty much nothing considering the state ran a surplus into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Hell, just pay it off and give all the schools all the money they need to feed children with my surplus dollars, no kid should EVER go hungry while in school. Feed them well.
JFRANCHIREPORTS Didn’t Utah have a surplus in the budget last year So why not use some of that and fund free school lunch program for everyone
JFRANCHIREPORTS If the State can spend $8000.00 of taxpayer money to help one student attend a private school , it can afford to make school lunch free across the board. How about governing with some compassion.
JFRANCHIREPORTS Church of LSD should pony up
JFRANCHIREPORTS If only there was a lottery that could be played and taxed to help pay for schools…
JFRANCHIREPORTS Well that’s a drop in the states budget. It’s ok as long as kids get fed.
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JFRANCHIREPORTS Gonna need to track that down to build the new MLB stadium.
JFRANCHIREPORTS If that's the kind of food kids are getting... let's not complain about cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes and the like in the next few decades...
JFRANCHIREPORTS Uh oh, get ready Utah low income families, the Utah republicans are going to take away your kids free lunch now!
JFRANCHIREPORTS Maybe that’s where some of the surplus tax money should go. No child should have to pay for school lunch/breakfast. For some, that is the only time they get to eat and not all parents know how to apply for free/reduced meals!!
JFRANCHIREPORTS PostMalone this kind of is your fault bringing all your kind and all the rich fucks to party. Property taxes went up another $200 a month plus for some household. Thanks
JFRANCHIREPORTS Thank you Joe Biden for letting our kids starve to death. Maybe if you did not give Ukraine 150 billion dollars you could feed our poor American children for a few years.