Glasgow Middle School in Fairfax, Va., has 1,150 students, with 65 percent receiving reduced-price or free lunches. Middle School more than half of its 600 students receive reduced-price or free lunches. And just a stone s throw from the Capitol in the District of Columbia, Merritt Elementary School provides reduced-price or free lunches to nearly all of its 522 students. In none of these schools does money change hands at the food counter. Children are provided a personal-identification number, similar to that used for an automatic teller machine, and punch it into a machine as they leave the lunch line.
Parents write a monthly check for what, if anything, is owed.
It is welfarism, of course, but students seem to like what is being served. The public should have a right to know which companies are supplying the meat to the USDA for the school-lunch program. Donley says, It s not worth the risk. Children are very vulnerable to the bacteria and even though some of these suppliers have been cited with numerous violations, they still are allowed to continue to bid on contracts. The government can t make these companies recall contaminated meat or poultry.