The Difference A Lunch Makes
By: Alex Cullins
When I was in the first grade, my family was extremely poor. I remember for what felt like a long time, we did not have electricity at my house, which made the caramel colored hardwood floors constantly cold and dark, along with everything else in the house. My mother worked full time as a single mother of two kids, me and my younger sister who was around 2 at the time. My father had just left us and all we had was each other.
My mother taught me to be very conscious about money because we didn’t have much. My school had a lunch program, but instead of paying we all lined up single file, with our backpacks on, and punched in a student ID number which charged an account connected to our names. Because I was six I was under the impression this meant school lunches were free, and this is what I told my mom. Eventually the lunch lady gave me a pink piece of paper. I will never forget that moment. I was wearing a hot pink shirt, adorned with glitter and ruffles, and the slip of paper was even brighter than my outfit. I had a dandelion yellow tray, with green beans, chocolate milk and a chicken burger for lunch. On the noxiously pink paper was my account balance, which was negative by hundreds of dollars. Panic, embarrassment and shame flushed through me. Because of our financial situation, I was too scared to show my mom. I knew we couldn't afford it, and she'd be furious with me for being so naive. I crumbled up the paper and threw it away.
I kept getting lunches, and the lunch lady started being aggressive towards me. She was a mean old woman, with moles on her permanently frowning face and crooked teeth. She would glare at me with eyes full of disdain, and ask me why I hadn't paid. She would yell my negative account balance at me in front of the other kids, and pull me aside by the arm, get in my face and demand that I get my mom to pay the outstanding bill. I never understood why she treated me like I was maliciously not paying the school, rather than asking what was going on at home, why I couldn't pay, or even just reaching out to my mother directly.
Eventually she told me I could no longer get school lunch because my unpaid balance was too high. I was still too afraid to tell my mother the situation, which meant I couldn't just ask her to pack me a lunch, so I went to school with no food. I would steal corn from the salad bar when the lunch ladies weren't looking. This was all I would eat until I got home most days. My friends started packing extra big lunches to feed me. Some days however, there just wasn't enough food to fill my belly.
Eventually she told me I could no longer get school lunch because my unpaid balance was too high. I was still too afraid to tell my mother the situation, which meant I couldn't just ask her to pack me a lunch, so I went to school with no food. I would steal corn from the salad bar when the lunch ladies weren't looking. This was all I would eat until I got home most days. My friends started packing extra big lunches to feed me. Some days however, there just wasn't enough food to fill my belly.
Eventually, one of the other lunch ladies noticed and asked me what was going on. The hunger had begun to give me stomach aches, and the guilt made me emotional, and I cried and told her everything. She bought me lunch and called my mom, who was appropriately upset and confused. She explained to me that we couldn't afford to pay the lunch bill, and I should have told her that the lunches were not free. I was so ashamed of the stress I caused her, but at the time I had been more preoccupied with getting a warm meal. If my school had had a free lunch program, there would be so much stress taken off of me and my mother, but a lack of funding made this kind of program impossible.
For many students, the most substantial meal they get in a day is the one provided at school due to financial constraints at home. Properly funded school districts can provide students with warm meals to alleviate stress and give students the brain fuel they need for long days of learning.
While many Californian schools have free lunch programs, hunger doesn't end when summer starts. By reforming prop 13, we can give California public schools an additional 17 billion dollars a year to support programs like free lunches for students over summer. Programs like these would ensure that children like me have full bellies anxiety free, taking stress off of kids and parents alike.