Fed up with menu, students stage lunchroom boycott, Chron.com
Macaroni and cheese again? Students at a junior high school near Texas' Gulf Coast staged a four-day boycott of cafeteria food last week to press for more menu choices and healthier alternatives.
About 30 students at Austwell-Tivoli Junior High School in Tivoli, Texas, shunned the cafeteria's offerings and brought their lunches from home for four days last week
The Chron blurb links to this story, from the Victoria Advocate, as their source material.
All of which leads me to this question: When I was in school I brought my lunch almost every single day. My Mom made it up for me and I happily ate it, instead of those cheesy egg rolls or mystery meat burgers or something that, was the opposite of what pizza should be. Was I boycotting?
No, I was just eating a better lunch than the school provided day after day. Of course, these days, my lunch probably wouldn't make the cut.
The lesson that should be taught to these children is that, if you don't like the free option, you're perfectly welcome to bring your own lunch as a substitute. Instead we're telling them that they're entitled to more than they're already given, despite the fact they clearly don't need it (after all, they had the money to bring their lunch right?)
Let's be honest, none of us, with the possible exception of some fringe elements, want to see little children go hungry, and I've no argument that free school meals are the last Maginot line for some children between basic nutrition and starvation. Those aren't the kids that I'm worried about here.
What I'm concerned about are children from families with means deciding that the free lunch their getting isn't suitable because it's not all that they feel entitled to.
The solution is to bring your own, if you can. Not to scream that other people need to pay more of their hard earned money because you're tired of mac n' cheese.
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