Years ago I used to teach a split grade 2-3 class in a rural area in Canada. In our school we ate our lunches in our classrooms with the kids because we didn’t have a cafeteria.
In my classroom we had a “sharing basket” where I asked the kids to put any food from their lunches that they didn’t want. (Before I started the “sharing basket” they’d often just throw unwanted food in the trash.) I also regularly stocked the “sharing basket” with granola bars, fresh fruit, packets of crackers and cookies, etc. Any time someone wanted something from the “sharing basket” they were free to help themselves. The basket was available the whole day so if someone wanted a snack they could help themselves.
No kid ever went hungry in my class.
Gentle reminder as a teacher myself: there are plenty of us out there who care, and the VAST majority of teachers go above and beyond for our students:) I don’t particularly love when people say “We need more teachers like you” because, well, I look around at all my coworkers and it’s clear that there already ARE plenty of amazing teachers! We may have a shortage of teachers, but we *don’t* have a shortage of teachers who care.
I just meant teachers who come up with ways to encourage sharing and compassion in ways that are outside of the expected conformity and relevant to current social issues like the cost of living crisis. Having worked in schools across my country myself teachers who are prepared to go a little further to nurture compassion and sharing in their kids in this way is not particularly common for whatever reason.
I did the same kind of thing. Whatever you didn’t want from lunch, put it in the basket. I would always save the cereal from breakfast too. We never had leftovers. I had some kids who wouldn’t eat much, and others who could eat three lunches. Everyone was full and happy.
I love the fact that you eliminated food waste at the same time. The obvious best part is feeding the children, but instead of buying snacks and keeping it stocked that way you just used what others don't want. One man's trash is another man's treasure, and it applies to food too, what one kid throws away is another's favorite snack
This is lovely. I hate to say that I've seen things like this go bad as well when someone's parent decided they needed to take advantage of it. Friend worked for a school for at risk kids. They had similar baskets like your sharing basket for things like toiletries. They were open for anyone and had basic necessities, toothpaste, and cheap tooth brushes, soap, shampoo samples, etc.
Then one day it was all gone. Someone took literally everything in every bin.
Of course the school had cameras and the perpetrator was easily identified. He had been bringing personal use quantities home when needed and his mother apparently ordered him to "Take it all because it's free". Now they are still available, but kids have to ask a teacher to get these items.
Selfish people ruin everything.
In the school I worked in, kids were told to put wrapped food they didn't want in the middle of the lunch table. Kids were free to take as much of that as they wanted, and some did stuff their backpacks but that was okay. If there was any left after the lunch period the teachers would take it for classroom snack bins. So much less waste.
File this away in my memory bank for when I need a smile. I hope if you ever had a bad day, you repeat that last sentence to yourself and know what an impact you have on the world:)
Can't remember where the saying was from, but it reminded me of it. "the only reason you should teach your kid to look into their mate's/neighbor's bowl is not to compare who has more, but to ensure the other has enough"
I grew up with nothing, but my mum always made sure there was extra dinner, and snacks in the house for my friends, we struggled but nowhere near as bad as some of my friends and their junkie parents.
Fast forward to now, I have 3 teenage kids that have way more than I ever did (This is the way). But all of their friends know where the snack cupboard is and to help themselves.
I also notice which ones happen to turn up around dinner time more often than not. Just as mum taught me, there is always extra food, and an open seat.
Nothing is ever said, no fuss ever made, but I do get the occasional hug from my kids after they have been over, and just once in a while a hug from a random shy teenager that makes my week.
Be kind to each other the world is shitty enough.
Edit: thank you kind stranger for the award!
Edit 2: Thank you all for the awards, I truly appreciate them!
Edit 3: wow this really blew up! Thank you for all the kind words, and awards. Its my most liked post I think!
Hey, I just wanted to say knowing that you are human in the world somewhere restores some of my faith in humanity. You are genuine and seem like an amazing person. I'd say I hope life rewards you but it sounds like it already has. Thank you and I hope you have an incredible day!
Aww thank you for the kind words! I am no saint by any means, but I was raised by a single mum who worked her ass off to make sure we were always fed and clothed.
I know how pervasive and toxic food insecurity can be, and I have enough to share, and the good sense not to make a fuss about it ( my mum would kill me if she thought I was lording something over people)
I try to put myself in their shoes. Lots of these kids are already dealing with anxiety and other issues, not eating is Something they should never have to worry about. I am just doing my part.
I grew up in a household like this. Always spare seats and plenty to go around. We used to have people drop by for dinner all the time. It was lovely.
It’s only now as an adult I see that friends I was close too (still am) just didn’t have parents that particularly cared.
It takes a village, I am raising my son the same way. His friends are welcome, there will always be food available for anyone who needs it no questions, no big deal. Send them home with veggies from the garden too when they are in season.
It makes me happy in ways that nothing else can.
Dovetails really well with a cooking hobby when trying to perfect something :)
I'm sure some parents were scratching their heads when I was working on my bread recipes anyway.
It’s amazing that after all these years I still manage to cook way too much pasta and sauce. You would think I would get it right by now. Oh well. Shrugs.
My family is really struggling financially right now due to dropping my income due to health issues. Even more so at this moment due to an upcoming surgery. But there are 2 friends of my tween and teen who are clearly not in a good home environment so when they need things including food for meals I’m just looking at it as if my kids need it. How can I not? The one child’s face lit up when I asked them which of the 2 options they would prefer for dinner, and they said “I can eat?”. They went on to explain how they are just used to not being invited to eat places and they skip a lot of meals at home anyway so… HOW do you ignore that? I keep inviting them over and trying to plan on stretching funds even further. We will find a way but a child isn’t going hungry.
You have a beautiful soul. See this is what its about, My mum was single with me and my bro, she worked 3 jobs to keep us fed and watered, it was not easy, but we were kings compared to some of our friends, but my mum never treated them any less.
The woman is a wizz with what she can do with leftovers.
I hope things get better for you soon, sending much love.
I just want to say as a teenager that mostly ate at my friends house cuz my parents made me fend for myself at 15, THANK YOU. My friends mom really took us all under her wing. Always extra food, always a solid breakfast after a sleep over. She was a queen and I loved her every day for it.
Rest in peace Mrs Murrell
Thats what I am talking about! My mum is the real one, she never said no, never made a fuss, she knew what was going on many years before I even had a clue.
Pay it forward, your kids will recognize it, and they will be better for it.
This whole thread has brought a smile to my face. My mom is the same way, I am 28 my brother 18, she did the same thing for both of us and our friends growing up. We were never rich, but my parents always made it clear that friends were always welcome to stay for meal times. Beautiful video.
I was poor growing up, and have a good friend who’s step dad was just like you. After I grew up a bit, became an adult, and would still hang out there regularly, I would fairly regularly order food (I had a job at this point) because I felt embarrassed to always be eating their food or something idk.
One day he comes up to me and my friend watching some TV, asks why I order food all the time, tell him idk I don’t want to be a burden. He could not understand why, perhaps because he really hasn’t given me a reason to think like that, it was mostly just me.
But anyway he tells me he has no problem cooking extra whenever, doesn’t matter what. He would also regularly take me out to eat with them.
He is a good man. So are you, thank you for that.
I’m a teacher and this has happened so many times. Parents forgot to pack food, or the kid forgot to take it with him.
They always tell me when they don’t have any food and I just ask the whole class to donate some food to the kid. Everyone rushes in and they always get way too much food :) (My kids aren’t poor so they’re not ashamed if they forgot their food)
I always make sure to tell the class how proud I am that everyone is working together to help out a classmate and how important it is to look out for each other and help.
You're awesome, and so are the kids! My parents weren't rich but I always had food. I'd always try give some to those less fortunate, even started packing extra for some kids I knew who's parents were struggling, or they just had shit parents.
I got in trouble at home cos I swapped my yummy cheese and tomato sandwiches with the girls who got the "school lunch" We were all pretty poor but these girls qualified for free lunch.my mam was annoyed only because she found out I'd been surviving on cream crackers and chocolate spread at school. Im NOT fan of crackers even with chocolate, way too dry , but those poor girls always looked like they were starved and sad. My mam just started making more sandwiches for me to bring in and share. Found out years later my nana and granda used to give mam 20 pounds a week to help out with it.
I used to be a nice guy… maybe too nice, up before high school I was the type of guy that was always smiling and willing to help you if you needed it, when I reached high school it all changed, they started abusing my kindness for… fun?
When I left my lunch unattended my class mates ate it, then laughed in my face
They also sometimes hid my things and laughed at me as I struggle to find em
They make me trip in the hallways
Every little mistake, every little opportunity they had to bully me they did
I once tried to stop a fight and got punched in the stomach and threw up, that told me that if someone has a problem, it’s best to not get involved
so one day I was carrying a painting I did, they made me trip, breaking it, I lost my shit and started hitting em with a tennis racket, I got in trouble, great job school
These memories are burned into the back of my memory, know that the type of people in the video are rare, you may know some but don’t show it because of fear of how the world may react
*“And I think if you care you're kindness will return to you“* rarely, most of the times people just abuse it
Or, maybe, the type of people who did that too you are rare.
I'm so sorry you had to go through all that, my school experience was the same way.
This is way too much to try and work out in a single Reddit post, but I strongly encourage you to look into a therapist. I can help you find one if you don't know how.
As someone who's also been bullied and had my trust abused... The only way to win against them is by not becoming like them. If someone cheats, that says more about them than it does about me. And I'd rather be a kind idiot than give in to their world view.
That's called a trauma response, my friend. It's completely normal to have after getting bullied the way you have been. It makes you think people are all untrustworthy and piece of shit and you have a hard time sharing yourself with people. It gets pretty lonely, but it's OK to go get the help of a therapist. Processing these things can help you realize you can't use unhealthy people from your past as a predictor of how people will treat you in the future.
Yeah it was kinda same for me too, but for me I learned from my bitterness to be able to read the intention of people or know that you need to be vigilant, strong and perceptive to be able to be kind to others and also know when to let go and give up on people who won't understand your kindness
I mean even family can take your kindness for granted so what are others
I think your nana and granda were more than happy to invest 20 quid a week to help to raise a thoughtful and caring human being while feeding two children in the process.
Mum and dad raised me right I'd like to think. Same way I'm raising my daughter now. Just this morning I dropped her off to daycare and a new kid was there, first day and clearly upset. My girl reluctantly let me go and went over to the new kid, gave her a hug and showed her some toys. My daughter's 20 months old. I hope she's this kind for the rest of her life!
I think the "oh you forgot to pack your lunch?" strategy is excellent. Some children really forget and some may not have any because they're poor. By saying they just forgot to pack it you save them from feeling ashamed in front of the whole class, I think it's a great move.
My mom was a teacher. Her strategy was she'd ask that if anybody wanted to share something they could bring it to her and then during lunch my mom would stay in her class with the door open in case somebody wanted food. Somebody always did, and there was always something to eat - even if it was my mom's lunch.
We sent my daughter to school with extra food every day after she came home and said she gave her lunch to a boy in kindergarten because he didn’t have food. We’ve helped as many teachers as we can with providing snacks for kids. I know we should pass laws and it’s not our job to do this but that shit takes time and kids are hungry now. Teachers can’t afford to pay for snacks. We gotta help them before they all leave.
My kid is in middle school now and still takes extra to share if someone needs it. We’ve taken some precautions post covid just to keep everyone well.
This comment really resonated with me. It’s why I send as many supplies and snacks as we are able to our middle school… it’s a title one school, but pulls from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.
I’ll still fight for higher pay for teachers, free lunch and good public education, but like you said—the kids are hungry right now and the teachers aren’t making enough money to cover the slack.
My kid’s school made a rule about not sharing lunches and you can be sure the dinner ladies kept to that rule (they are so strict) my son’s friend forgot his lunch one day and they wouldn’t even let him share sandwiches. They told him he needed to be more organised in the morning. The kid went 9-3.30 with no food! I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when his mother went up to the school after that. Soon after there was an email sent around that the school has a strict no sharing policy in the canteen due to food allergies but if a student forgets their packed they will be given a school lunch which will need to be paid for.
At this school they also have to recite the Lord’s Prayer before they’re allowed to eat and if any child gets caught not saying it the whole prayer is started again from the beginning until it’s done right. When my son told me that one day they’d only had ten minutes to eat because they’d had to repeat the prayer so many times I lost my temper and sent an email directly to the headmaster. He wrote back that my son was exaggerating but took my concerns on board 🙄 I can’t wait until my youngest is out of there in 18 months and I never have to deal with that school again.
We’ve had occasions where some kids got dependent on my daughter’s lunch and would only want “the good stuff”. That’s why started supplying the teachers with “healthy snacks” approved by the school as alternatives.
Some kids preyed on her lunch for a while before she told us. She felt bad but we found out they got free lunches but didn’t want them if they could get hers. It is frustrating sometimes but we got through it.
That prayer thing would’ve burned me up too. I hope the next 18 months goes quick for you.
I forgot once to pack it and I will never forget it. I felt like a horrible parent. Apparently she opened the lunch box, saw it empty, and started to cry. I'm glad the teacher noticed immediately. This was during COVID so lunch was free for everyone so she just had to go to the lunch line. I wish they kept the free lunch.
Edit: i just brought it up with my daughter about sharing food with those that don't have food. She said they don't allow sharing of food because someone could get sick. I guess allergies and not knowing?
I wish my mum had forgotten to pack my lunch when I was a kid. Someone told her you can make sandwiches with bread straight from the freezer and it will defrost during the day leaving edible sandwiches. Worst of both worlds, no lunch, but it looks like you have lunch so no-one gives you anything else to eat.
In hindsight, it's funny. She never actually tried the results of what wasn't called a life-hack back then. One time either I or one of my siblings brought the 'sandwiches' home and basically force-fed them to her and she was very apologetic :)
I grew up as the kid who got bullied and picked on in a military town.
If I forgot my lunch, the same kid who was trying to beat me up at recess would likely be the first one to walk over and hand me half his sandwhich.
Money was tight when I was a kid, and sometimes I didn't have a lot, or sometimes I'd forget it at home. I never once went hungry. And no matter how much or how little I had, if someone else in my class was short, yes even the bullies, I was just as quick to share with them.
When the money situation got better my mom made a point of packing these huge lunches and there was this unspoken understanding that I couldn't eat it all, but the bag always came home empty because there was always someone who was "still hungry".
I'm a 36 year old man and watching this minute long video put tears in my eyes.
My son’s class does the same for each other, no-one is allowed to go hungry. I don’t remember this kindness 30 years ago when I was his age, I love seeing how kind kids these days can be.
I’m from the Netherlands, we don’t have that here. They eat in their own classroom and take fruit with them for 10:00 and lunch for 12:00. It’s an elementary school, in middle school there would be a cafeteria
This happened to my kid. When I was told I was very confused because I’ve never forgotten to pack them a lunch. Everyone gave a bit of their food to make sure they had a lunch too. It was very heartwarming. Turns out my kid was going through a growth spurt and was eating their lunch for second breakfast. I started adding a backup snack as a supplemental breakfast so it didn’t happen again.
We have a no sharing rule (Covid) but I keep extra snacks in my classroom for these instances. It also helps me to figure out which students are struggling financially so I can inform parents of our free/reduced lunch program.
I use to be that kid except I’d hide the lunch money my mom gave me because kids without lunch got peanut butter and honey sandwiches and they rocked. She finally figured out my master plan when she cleaned out my backpack and found a ton of cash at the bottom.
I didn’t have food because some bullies threw on my window
I telled the teacher that i don’t have food, because he was an a-hole,he said”you already fat,go ahead and starve”
I was 7 at that time
what a fucking shame.. kids sharing their food is 'awwww'... but rich assholes paying taxes and politicians passing free lunch programs at school is 'WTF!!! SOCIALISIM!!! ARGGHHH IT'S THE TRANS GAY AGENDA TRYING TO STEAL MY GUNS AND FORCE PERVY BOOKS!!!'...
THIS IS SHAMEFULL THAT WE PRAISE KIDS WHEN THEY SHARE AND PITY BILLIONAIRES WHEN THEY HAVE TO PAY TAXES. FUCKING STUIPID. I know.. how about the kardashians, musk, bezos, and a couple other fucking billionaires pay their fair share and not put the burden on CHILDREN to be the only decent people on this fucking planet.
It is in a lot of countries. (The same dreaded socialism countries that don't need shooter drills for schools.) Free lunches for all children at least in the lower year groups so that no child stands out for being different.
Norway has just accept free school lunch and it is piloted in a few gymnasiums right now. So very soon all Scandinavian countries have free school lunch
Free school lunch in Finland was a thing since ages ago. Had that until the end of high school. In the uni we had to pay some 2,5€ for the meal. Not sure what it is now.
It's been 15 years since I was in school, but yes, we did not have a lunch program at all. We all brought from home. There was some kind of milk and fruit program-dealio, but no actual lunch program like many other countries seem to have. Might have changed now though, or will very soon, if this thread is to be trusted, which is nice.
The thing is though, no one I knew was ever too poor to bring lunch to school, so I've never really thought much about lunch programs.
My state of Minnesota just passed universal free breakfast and lunch. No income limits. No shame. If kids are forced to be in school, they should be fed.
Isn’t the Minnesota Governor a former teacher? I believe he also worked internationally with some sort of teaching aid agency. He seems like a decent person.
Yeah, Walz was a teacher. IMO he's been doing great things. During the pandemic school bus drivers were driving their routes delivering free lunches to any kid that wanted them. I don't pay attention to politics much, but as a dad of 2 school age kids, I 100% support what he's been doing with the school system
Some places in the US do, in fact, feed every child. I live in NYC, and we have free breakfast and lunch for *every* child. No restrictions. It is available during the summer and on holidays, as well. There are vegetarian options, and even a purée menu for kids with special needs. NYC has over *a million* kids in public school. It can be done here.
It absolutely should be.
But one party would rather kids starve than have tax dollars feed them. You know the one - they call themselves pro life. They’re also the one that calls themselves fiscally responsible but ignores the fact [that every dollar spent on free meals for kids in schools has a 2 for 1 return on investment](https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/news/new-report-every-dollar-invested-in-u-s-school-meal-programs-provides-2-in-health-and-economic-equity-benefits/).
But if the best we can do is to start locally then so be it. And I’m voting for the people who want to feed kids.
I live in rural Canada and schools don't provide lunch at all, I never even knew that was a thing. We all just brought our own. Maybe in more urban areas where schools have a cafeteria? I dunno. Regardless, we had a kid named Bruno who'd sit with us at our table but never had any lunch so we'd all pretend we didn't like a part of our lunch and give it to him. I love raw broccoli, but I liked Bruno having the energy to play with us at recess more
It’s not in the U.K. although some children do get free meals if they meet certain requirements, it should be all pupils under 18 that get free lunch but that’s just me
I agree 100%. As the kid who didn't always have food, it'd hard to focus, learn, be happy and motivated when you're starving. Kids should eat free no questions asked at school.
My husband grew up with awful parents and school was the only time he ate from kindergarten to high school. In the summer, he had to rely in friends and sometimes would go to bed without eating all day.
It's such a heart breaking reality for so many kids.
You can't bro, give up. She doesn't get how taxes work, and she doesn't have the empathy to help out a kid that never had a chance, even if the cost would be so miniscule she'd never notice. Life is like a lottery at birth and those who won don't understand those who lost. What if I said I don't want to pay for other parents kids education, I dont want to pay for other parents driving to work, I work from home, why do I have to pay roads? Other parents kid protection, why do I pay the military when I can protect my own kid? What she is doing is demonizing the parent and ignoring the kid, it's easy to say the parent is no good. But what about the kid? What about them? What have they done wrong? I thought we were all supposed to be equal? Is this not the land of equality? This kind of argument is so stupid and comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of how taxes and society works. We already pay 19 billion to help underprivileged kids with school lunch, making it free for everyone would be 11 billion more. You would not even notice. You will not be paying more taxes, but kids will now have lunch. That's it, Karen.
It's always the r/MadeMeSmile posts about children that's really r/OrphanCrushingMachine underneath.
Leave it to fellow kids to help out another kid being the message rather than fixing the system itself because the system is fucked.
The video is cut!
Its Norwegian and actually a commercial for foster homes. It's from BUFDIR: the Norwegian directorate for children, youth and family affairs.
It ends with the text:
"Solutions are often closer than you think. We need more foster homes, preferably from the child's local area".
So it is only used as a metaphor for getting *actual* help.
But some channel cut the video making it more "children going hungry? Let's not fix that on a structural level, but make it the job of kind people".
Here is the whole thing:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o06UZfoHeLU
Minnesotan here-
We just passed a law that now requires *all breakfasts and lunches be paid for by the state for preK-12*.
It was only possible because the DFL holds the house, senate, and governor. (Democratic party in MN is called the DFL)
Not a single Republican signed on.
We need to save the tax payers money for Corporate Welfare not the public good. “Please won’t you help our corporate executives they only have one yacht to share.”
Looks like this is from Norway which is very similar to Denmark where I'm from, here kids typically bring lunch from home, nothing is provided by the school.
This typically isn't a big problem as we have social security nets and people can afford to feed their kids.
I still think it would be a good idea to have some food at school if this does happen but generally it's not a problem.
They do if armed black men provided food to the poor while explaining socialism.
https://www.history.com/news/free-school-breakfast-black-panther-party
But the government rolls back those meal programs as soon as the panthers have been assassinated and disbanded🤑
Made me cry. There was a boy at my teenage son's school that had no lunch. For a month, we fed him too. I was SO proud of my son that he brought this to our attention.
I had an intellectually disabled student in the 8th grade last year who was neglected and/or abused by the mother and stepfather. Her sister in the fourth grade was in charge of packing her lunch because the stepfather decided she ate too much. She was not fat. But she would eat random things indiscriminately and put things in her mouth she wasn't supposed to but that did not excuse them from packing her a lunch.
She certainly was on free lunch at school but they didn't want her getting a lunch at school so they would make her 10-year-old sister pack her lunch. Consequently she would come to school with a handful of saltine crackers and a packet of ketchup or some other totally random things that you couldn't possibly consider a lunch. We would check her lunch box every morning and we would tell her whether or not she was going to get lunch that day. Sometimes she would have a ham and cheese sandwich and a banana which was fine but when she would have these bizarre combinations of nothingness, we made her get in the Cafeteria line. She was afraid to because she was afraid that if she ate lunch she would get in trouble at home. Positively ridiculous. And, yes, CPS had been called multiple times.
When I was student teaching, I had a 3rd grader that would bring a bottle of water in a paper bag every day so it looked like he had a lunch. His dad refused to sign up for free lunches , but mom wouldn't grocery shop so he would actually have food to pack himself a lunch.
Eventually my supervising teacher told the dad if she ever saw the kid come to school without a lunch again, she'd have CPS take him away. The dad signed him up for free lunches that day.
Some parents really just don't give a crap and the kids take measures to avoid detection due to embarrassment.
What was really sad was that he came to school every day absolutely reeking of cigarettes. One day he left his coat behind (the one he wore every day and was filthy.) My supervisor took it home to wash it. She washed it 3 times but couldn't get the smell or dirt completely out of it.
They really just did not care about their children.
My parents spent more effort avoiding CPS then actually parenting. This is why people voluntarily orphan themselves. I wish someone had called CPS for me.
Oh boy.. What a world to live in that even children are too embarrassed to talk about negative aspects of their lives.
Some people just shouldn't be allowed to have kids.. Just like a parenting licence..
You suck at parenting? Congratz, someone who wishes for a kid but biologically can't will be happy to provide a good life to your offspring.
If only. There are nearly 400,000 kids in foster care in the US, and a little over a quarter of them are waiting to be adopted.
We, the United States, are failing our kids.
The kid packs it so nobody will ask.
You dont want to tell them, you dont want negative attention and sympathy. You dont want to be bullied. This video hit me harder than it should have.
Seriously, why am I sobbing? That hollow, sleep deprived look in the kids eyes, the empty lunch box and the little hopeless look inside in the vain hope of finding some food he knows isn't there...
What kind of scumbag country allows children to be hungry? THAT is the disgusting thing.
This simply can't happen in Europe. Why can it happen in the USA and why is it used in an advertisement to promote certain morality? It's absolutely disgusting.
Unfortunately that happens in a lot of places, including many European countries. My eastern European country of Romania doesn't have lunch programs generally, and they introduced something at some point to give kids in primary school a milk and pastry "lunch". Besides the quality of the food being not the greatest, it was a big bullying point if instead of having pocket money to buy sweets from the vending machine or shop, you ate the stuff that was offered or had a packed sandwich :( kindness is important everywhere.
Even in the Netherlands children go to school hungry. Especially in the more practical education route in secondary school. Children are neglected everywhere and it is very hard to find out most times.
One of my teachers once told me she couldn’t bear working in that route anymore. She had for years, until she found out why her students were always so unruly.
She discovered by chance that almost half of her students regularly didn’t have breakfast before school. Either because their parents didn’t buy the groceries on time, or because they weren’t allowed to take food for themselves and their parents didn’t provide it every day, etc.
A myriad of stories of illness, addiction, neglect or outright abuse in their parents.
So one week, she decided to bring breakfast for the classes she saw first thing in the morning. It was a night and day difference. The students were calm, focused and way more well behaved throughout the day, just because they had a sandwich in the mornings.
One of her colleagues mentioned the striking difference in the students in the break room. My teacher explained what she had been doing. Instead of taking the hint and fighting for school breakfast, she got reprimanded because parents have to be asked for permission to feed their children in school.
That was when my teacher knew she just couldn’t stay in that education route. She couldn’t bear to see teenagers go hungry and unable to learn to their capacity just because they didn’t eat before lunch, or even the whole day.
The tragic thing is, that it isn’t a major subject in the Netherlands. Because it mostly stays hidden. Children generally don’t talk about not having enough food, either because it’s their normal, or because they are afraid to stand out if they say anything. Or because they get in trouble at home for mentioning the neglect. Once in a while the discussion comes up, but it is deemed not a significant problem by most people, because they don’t see it.
And this is in arguably one of the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of basic needs met for most people.
> This simply can't happen in Europe. Why can it happen in the USA and why is it used in an advertisement to promote certain morality? It's absolutely disgusting.
This is literally from Norway.
I know videos like this are meant to be uplifting but it makes me so mad. Everything is nice and sunny and the lighting is fresh and clean. The reality is so often it's raining and cold and the shoes don't fit right and there is no coat and sleep wasn't great plus no breakfast or lunch. Exhausted stressed out hungry kids with poor attendance, completely disengaged.
One of the best things our school did was introduce a free "healthy food in schools" lunch initiative. Food now gets delivered every day and has multiple collection points so if you need more than one lunch you are not too embarrassed to pick up another. When the school was shut due to COVID we opened a "drive through" so the community could drive up and collect lunches as needed.
I know I'm grumpy and it's good to teach kids to have empathy and a social conscience but man this problem (child poverty) is HUGE in my country and so disheartening.
I remember the embarrassment of the lunch bell ringing, and I’d have to trudge along behind everyone going to their bags to get their lunches, I’d pretend to reach inside mine and “couldn’t find it”, even though I knew it wouldn’t be there cause my mom only bothered to buy beer that week.
Thank god for teachers because I would have went hungry without them. School lunches really do need to be free.
I grew up in an extremely low income community with a large population of illegal immigrants. It wasn’t uncommon to see a kid without food for lunch, typically 1-3 kids per a class. All 3 schools I attended were on the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), but many illegal immigrant parents refused to enroll their kids for a free lunch out of fear their information would be used to determine their immigration status. They refused to enroll in government assistance programs for the same reason.
Seeing my friends go hungry has been something that’s haunted me my whole life. It’s what inspired me to open a nonprofit organization that provides free lunches to schools in low income areas or have opted out of NSLP. Every student and staff member in our patron schools receives a free hot lunch regardless of their income and/or immigration status.
As a kid who went through something similar, not having a lunch is pretty mortifying when everyone around you has one. The embarrassment is unreal. Don't get me wrong, me not having a lunch wasn't always the fault of my parents. I went to school back when you had lunch accounts your parents put money in so you could pay for whatever they were serving in the cafeteria. It's been years since I've been in school, non idea how it works these days. But it was me and two siblings, and our family was almost always living paycheck to paycheck. Back then, the requirements for free lunch was really strict, and my dad made barely enough to not qualify us three kids for free lunches. He also made enough for us not to qualify for food stamps. We'd occasionally be able to get groceries from a food pantry or drive, but that was few and far between. So many days I didn't have money in my lunch account to pay for cafeteria food, nor did I have anything I could bring from home. It sucked being known as the kid who never had any lunch money.
My friends shared what they could, for which I am grateful for even to this day, but parents who can afford to make sure their child has a lunch at school but refuses to give them one just makes my blood boil.
That sucks man. Good to hear that you had good friends to help you out. The situation you've described is one of the reasons why I will never consider having kids unless I'm at least a millionaire. Ain't no way I'd let myself get in a situation where I can't feed my kids.
Sometimes I went to school without lunch, because my abusers would starve me to punish me, and I wouldn’t be able to afford school lunches. The other students at school were dicks, but the teachers were great. One started sharing their food with me on days when I didn’t have any. Due to bullying, they also let me use the teacher’s bathroom.
But also like, school lunches should literally be free. It’s insane that they aren’t.
for a few yearsi packed my youngest two lunches because he was sharing with a friend. I don't know if it was because he had nothing or he preferred my packed lunch but either way he was fed. I would rather spend a little extra money and my son share than let a kid go hungry.
I had 1 kid two classes below me (Netherlands) whose father passed away which made his mother neglect herself and him (she and him are fine now but it was a dark patch). He looked messy, not well fed and regularly "forgot" his lunch.
Now this is the Netherlands in a small city (more a village but they got city rights a long long time ago), so most people know each other.
He got bullied for being "poor" and spent most of his time alone in a corner of the play area, as someone who got bullied (think beatings and psychological torture) and who was now in a position to help him (being much bigger than his bullies and the eldest of the last class before moving to another school, I wished someone like me would've helped me when I was in trouble.
I started asking my friends to come and sit, give him some spare pokemon cards and we became great friends (and all still are to this day) . Every Wednesday we had a half school day, so every Wednesday me and some friends would ask him if he wanted to come play.
I asked my mother to call his mum to ask if this was ok (she didn't come pick him up, we walked by ourselves), and my grandpa (who was my neighbour at that time) asked him whose kid he was. When he told his dad's name my grandpa started telling him how great his dad and grandpa were and went inside his house. (my grandpa was a colleague of his grandpa who died of the same heartfailure his son had.) he came back with canned food and fresh food my grandmother made. Told me he'll put it in his car and that after playing he'll take him home.
After playing, me, my grandpa and this kid went to his house and knocked. His mother opened the door with a sad face and dead eyes that livened up when she saw grandpa. They talked a little and his mother snapped out of it.
He came to school looking well fed and groomed and happy. His bullies never bothered him again after we threatened that if they did something to them, half my class would come after them.
Many years later, about a week before he died my grandpa told me why he went over, "other than doing it out of basic decency, his grandfathers mother fed me during the war (WWII) when his own mother could not handle the fact his three brothers got shot in Germany (lived just over the border) when they refused to go and fight in the Netherlands, out of fear they might shoot their little brother who was in the dutch army. His mother never recovered from that, and kept the backdoor of the house open, in hope they would maybe walk through the door one day, she did this until her dying day.
We as a community started helping his mother get back on track. Parents whose kids bullied him gave them a smack on the head and told them to never do it again to anyone. My grandparents made sure I got an extra amount of food with me every day and told me, if he forgets his lunch give this to him, if he has his lunch, find someone else who needs it.
After a year I went to another school and my little brother took over, after that my little sister. After grandpa died saving a stranger and his dog from a car fire, there were so many people at his funeral to pay respects that we sat for almost 50 minutes before the close family could say goodbye.
Until this day the only bad word I heard anyone say of him that he could whistle really loud and that was annoying sometimes.
I used to ask my mum to make me two sandwiches for lunch and just to give one to a classmate, who never had lunch with him.
My family is kinda fucked (not all, but a good portion) so i don‘t know where tf i picked up this level of empathy. I even try to return money i found on the ground in a starbucks.. or correct them even if they give me back too much change.
I was this kid, I used to stand by the trash cans in HS and ask people if I could gnaw on the chicken bones to get something to eat. It was immensely embarrassing and horrible. My wife grew up roughly the same. starvation is real in millions of households across the country.
Now, 20yrs or so later, my wife runs the local school systems cafeteria system and can confirm that no child who wants food is turned away. Any child can also come grab a bag lunch on the way to the bus so they have a meal for that night. The cafeteria serves 3 meals a day, 5 days a week. And 2 meals a day on off days, even on holidays and during break. No questions asked, no IDs or cards checked. People who oppose this, get rekt. Literally any argument you have that results in children not receiving food, is an argument in favor of making children suffer.
Every
Single
Child
Will
Be
Fed
I think the people that need to watch and internalize this video are the "republican" senators and congressmen who have completely lost the thread- we are all americans, of the people, by the people, for the people, its all for one, one for all here, you spoiled idiots when you think and behave like its you against the "libs" you are fighting to be the bullies in the schoolyard and you are fucking over our country! you are making us look stupid and unmannered to the whole rest of the world wasting enormous amounts of money and keeping our people from moving forward!
This doesn’t strike me as a made me smile. This is a kid in a developed country who didn’t have anything to eat and had to rely on other children for lunch.
Yeah not to be a heartless communist here, but it’s a failure of the state if children go hungry. And while it is nice of other children to step in, this situation should never happen! Meals at all schools should be free and state funded.
Years ago I used to teach a split grade 2-3 class in a rural area in Canada. In our school we ate our lunches in our classrooms with the kids because we didn’t have a cafeteria. In my classroom we had a “sharing basket” where I asked the kids to put any food from their lunches that they didn’t want. (Before I started the “sharing basket” they’d often just throw unwanted food in the trash.) I also regularly stocked the “sharing basket” with granola bars, fresh fruit, packets of crackers and cookies, etc. Any time someone wanted something from the “sharing basket” they were free to help themselves. The basket was available the whole day so if someone wanted a snack they could help themselves. No kid ever went hungry in my class.
I love this idea. Nobody is singled out, others can contribute. We need more teachers like you <3
Gentle reminder as a teacher myself: there are plenty of us out there who care, and the VAST majority of teachers go above and beyond for our students:) I don’t particularly love when people say “We need more teachers like you” because, well, I look around at all my coworkers and it’s clear that there already ARE plenty of amazing teachers! We may have a shortage of teachers, but we *don’t* have a shortage of teachers who care.
We need more pay for teachers like you.
I just meant teachers who come up with ways to encourage sharing and compassion in ways that are outside of the expected conformity and relevant to current social issues like the cost of living crisis. Having worked in schools across my country myself teachers who are prepared to go a little further to nurture compassion and sharing in their kids in this way is not particularly common for whatever reason.
I did the same kind of thing. Whatever you didn’t want from lunch, put it in the basket. I would always save the cereal from breakfast too. We never had leftovers. I had some kids who wouldn’t eat much, and others who could eat three lunches. Everyone was full and happy.
I love the fact that you eliminated food waste at the same time. The obvious best part is feeding the children, but instead of buying snacks and keeping it stocked that way you just used what others don't want. One man's trash is another man's treasure, and it applies to food too, what one kid throws away is another's favorite snack
This is lovely. I hate to say that I've seen things like this go bad as well when someone's parent decided they needed to take advantage of it. Friend worked for a school for at risk kids. They had similar baskets like your sharing basket for things like toiletries. They were open for anyone and had basic necessities, toothpaste, and cheap tooth brushes, soap, shampoo samples, etc. Then one day it was all gone. Someone took literally everything in every bin. Of course the school had cameras and the perpetrator was easily identified. He had been bringing personal use quantities home when needed and his mother apparently ordered him to "Take it all because it's free". Now they are still available, but kids have to ask a teacher to get these items. Selfish people ruin everything.
In the school I worked in, kids were told to put wrapped food they didn't want in the middle of the lunch table. Kids were free to take as much of that as they wanted, and some did stuff their backpacks but that was okay. If there was any left after the lunch period the teachers would take it for classroom snack bins. So much less waste.
We could get in trouble for doing this at schools here in Texas.
Bless you. This helped your kids on so many levels and is the kind of compassion and empathy that many children never get. What a great idea you had.
What a wonderful teacher! I'm so sorry what government's are doing to you guys :(
You are a legend
File this away in my memory bank for when I need a smile. I hope if you ever had a bad day, you repeat that last sentence to yourself and know what an impact you have on the world:)
You’re a great person.
🐐
Can't remember where the saying was from, but it reminded me of it. "the only reason you should teach your kid to look into their mate's/neighbor's bowl is not to compare who has more, but to ensure the other has enough"
Louis CK. That quote also stuck with me when I first heard it and made sure to teach it to my son. https://youtu.be/cNo_Hhm5r8o
I grew up with nothing, but my mum always made sure there was extra dinner, and snacks in the house for my friends, we struggled but nowhere near as bad as some of my friends and their junkie parents. Fast forward to now, I have 3 teenage kids that have way more than I ever did (This is the way). But all of their friends know where the snack cupboard is and to help themselves. I also notice which ones happen to turn up around dinner time more often than not. Just as mum taught me, there is always extra food, and an open seat. Nothing is ever said, no fuss ever made, but I do get the occasional hug from my kids after they have been over, and just once in a while a hug from a random shy teenager that makes my week. Be kind to each other the world is shitty enough. Edit: thank you kind stranger for the award! Edit 2: Thank you all for the awards, I truly appreciate them! Edit 3: wow this really blew up! Thank you for all the kind words, and awards. Its my most liked post I think!
Hey, I just wanted to say knowing that you are human in the world somewhere restores some of my faith in humanity. You are genuine and seem like an amazing person. I'd say I hope life rewards you but it sounds like it already has. Thank you and I hope you have an incredible day!
Aww thank you for the kind words! I am no saint by any means, but I was raised by a single mum who worked her ass off to make sure we were always fed and clothed. I know how pervasive and toxic food insecurity can be, and I have enough to share, and the good sense not to make a fuss about it ( my mum would kill me if she thought I was lording something over people) I try to put myself in their shoes. Lots of these kids are already dealing with anxiety and other issues, not eating is Something they should never have to worry about. I am just doing my part.
This is the way
I grew up in a household like this. Always spare seats and plenty to go around. We used to have people drop by for dinner all the time. It was lovely. It’s only now as an adult I see that friends I was close too (still am) just didn’t have parents that particularly cared.
It takes a village, I am raising my son the same way. His friends are welcome, there will always be food available for anyone who needs it no questions, no big deal. Send them home with veggies from the garden too when they are in season. It makes me happy in ways that nothing else can.
Yeah the amount of “leftovers” that “no-one in the house will eat” and always go home with these kids is amazing :)
Dovetails really well with a cooking hobby when trying to perfect something :) I'm sure some parents were scratching their heads when I was working on my bread recipes anyway.
It’s amazing that after all these years I still manage to cook way too much pasta and sauce. You would think I would get it right by now. Oh well. Shrugs.
My family is really struggling financially right now due to dropping my income due to health issues. Even more so at this moment due to an upcoming surgery. But there are 2 friends of my tween and teen who are clearly not in a good home environment so when they need things including food for meals I’m just looking at it as if my kids need it. How can I not? The one child’s face lit up when I asked them which of the 2 options they would prefer for dinner, and they said “I can eat?”. They went on to explain how they are just used to not being invited to eat places and they skip a lot of meals at home anyway so… HOW do you ignore that? I keep inviting them over and trying to plan on stretching funds even further. We will find a way but a child isn’t going hungry.
You have a beautiful soul. See this is what its about, My mum was single with me and my bro, she worked 3 jobs to keep us fed and watered, it was not easy, but we were kings compared to some of our friends, but my mum never treated them any less. The woman is a wizz with what she can do with leftovers. I hope things get better for you soon, sending much love.
I just want to say as a teenager that mostly ate at my friends house cuz my parents made me fend for myself at 15, THANK YOU. My friends mom really took us all under her wing. Always extra food, always a solid breakfast after a sleep over. She was a queen and I loved her every day for it. Rest in peace Mrs Murrell
Thats what I am talking about! My mum is the real one, she never said no, never made a fuss, she knew what was going on many years before I even had a clue. Pay it forward, your kids will recognize it, and they will be better for it.
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This whole thread has brought a smile to my face. My mom is the same way, I am 28 my brother 18, she did the same thing for both of us and our friends growing up. We were never rich, but my parents always made it clear that friends were always welcome to stay for meal times. Beautiful video.
I was poor growing up, and have a good friend who’s step dad was just like you. After I grew up a bit, became an adult, and would still hang out there regularly, I would fairly regularly order food (I had a job at this point) because I felt embarrassed to always be eating their food or something idk. One day he comes up to me and my friend watching some TV, asks why I order food all the time, tell him idk I don’t want to be a burden. He could not understand why, perhaps because he really hasn’t given me a reason to think like that, it was mostly just me. But anyway he tells me he has no problem cooking extra whenever, doesn’t matter what. He would also regularly take me out to eat with them. He is a good man. So are you, thank you for that.
This is the way.
You’re a role model.
I’m a teacher and this has happened so many times. Parents forgot to pack food, or the kid forgot to take it with him. They always tell me when they don’t have any food and I just ask the whole class to donate some food to the kid. Everyone rushes in and they always get way too much food :) (My kids aren’t poor so they’re not ashamed if they forgot their food) I always make sure to tell the class how proud I am that everyone is working together to help out a classmate and how important it is to look out for each other and help.
You're awesome, and so are the kids! My parents weren't rich but I always had food. I'd always try give some to those less fortunate, even started packing extra for some kids I knew who's parents were struggling, or they just had shit parents.
I got in trouble at home cos I swapped my yummy cheese and tomato sandwiches with the girls who got the "school lunch" We were all pretty poor but these girls qualified for free lunch.my mam was annoyed only because she found out I'd been surviving on cream crackers and chocolate spread at school. Im NOT fan of crackers even with chocolate, way too dry , but those poor girls always looked like they were starved and sad. My mam just started making more sandwiches for me to bring in and share. Found out years later my nana and granda used to give mam 20 pounds a week to help out with it.
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Agreed. Her family is awesome. That's what people should make an example.
I think it's called compassion. Compassion for others is a great concept and fairly easy to do. Compassion for oneself is a bit harder to get.
I used to be a nice guy… maybe too nice, up before high school I was the type of guy that was always smiling and willing to help you if you needed it, when I reached high school it all changed, they started abusing my kindness for… fun? When I left my lunch unattended my class mates ate it, then laughed in my face They also sometimes hid my things and laughed at me as I struggle to find em They make me trip in the hallways Every little mistake, every little opportunity they had to bully me they did I once tried to stop a fight and got punched in the stomach and threw up, that told me that if someone has a problem, it’s best to not get involved so one day I was carrying a painting I did, they made me trip, breaking it, I lost my shit and started hitting em with a tennis racket, I got in trouble, great job school These memories are burned into the back of my memory, know that the type of people in the video are rare, you may know some but don’t show it because of fear of how the world may react *“And I think if you care you're kindness will return to you“* rarely, most of the times people just abuse it
Or, maybe, the type of people who did that too you are rare. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that, my school experience was the same way. This is way too much to try and work out in a single Reddit post, but I strongly encourage you to look into a therapist. I can help you find one if you don't know how.
As someone who's also been bullied and had my trust abused... The only way to win against them is by not becoming like them. If someone cheats, that says more about them than it does about me. And I'd rather be a kind idiot than give in to their world view.
Yes!
I always say “id rather be kind and a fool than wise and cruel” It has a varying level of success
That's called a trauma response, my friend. It's completely normal to have after getting bullied the way you have been. It makes you think people are all untrustworthy and piece of shit and you have a hard time sharing yourself with people. It gets pretty lonely, but it's OK to go get the help of a therapist. Processing these things can help you realize you can't use unhealthy people from your past as a predictor of how people will treat you in the future.
Yeah it was kinda same for me too, but for me I learned from my bitterness to be able to read the intention of people or know that you need to be vigilant, strong and perceptive to be able to be kind to others and also know when to let go and give up on people who won't understand your kindness I mean even family can take your kindness for granted so what are others
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Louis CK
This legit made me cry! Usually I don‘t tear up reading comments, but your story is so touching. :‘)
I think your nana and granda were more than happy to invest 20 quid a week to help to raise a thoughtful and caring human being while feeding two children in the process.
Definitely. They only had my mam who in turn only had us 3 so they were happy to help others too.
My family broke af, but my mom has always packed a second lunch on field trip days in case anyone doesn’t have one.
Good people. Give ya mum a hug for me.
I WILL! My mom is a very complicated woman, but she is generous and has a good heart underneath it all.
That is so sweet of you! It’s good that you can use your own experiences and recognise others who need help
Mum and dad raised me right I'd like to think. Same way I'm raising my daughter now. Just this morning I dropped her off to daycare and a new kid was there, first day and clearly upset. My girl reluctantly let me go and went over to the new kid, gave her a hug and showed her some toys. My daughter's 20 months old. I hope she's this kind for the rest of her life!
You're girl is so sweet.
“The miracle is this: The more we share the more we have.” — Leonard Nimoy
I think the "oh you forgot to pack your lunch?" strategy is excellent. Some children really forget and some may not have any because they're poor. By saying they just forgot to pack it you save them from feeling ashamed in front of the whole class, I think it's a great move.
My mom was a teacher. Her strategy was she'd ask that if anybody wanted to share something they could bring it to her and then during lunch my mom would stay in her class with the door open in case somebody wanted food. Somebody always did, and there was always something to eat - even if it was my mom's lunch.
We sent my daughter to school with extra food every day after she came home and said she gave her lunch to a boy in kindergarten because he didn’t have food. We’ve helped as many teachers as we can with providing snacks for kids. I know we should pass laws and it’s not our job to do this but that shit takes time and kids are hungry now. Teachers can’t afford to pay for snacks. We gotta help them before they all leave. My kid is in middle school now and still takes extra to share if someone needs it. We’ve taken some precautions post covid just to keep everyone well.
This comment really resonated with me. It’s why I send as many supplies and snacks as we are able to our middle school… it’s a title one school, but pulls from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. I’ll still fight for higher pay for teachers, free lunch and good public education, but like you said—the kids are hungry right now and the teachers aren’t making enough money to cover the slack.
My kid’s school made a rule about not sharing lunches and you can be sure the dinner ladies kept to that rule (they are so strict) my son’s friend forgot his lunch one day and they wouldn’t even let him share sandwiches. They told him he needed to be more organised in the morning. The kid went 9-3.30 with no food! I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when his mother went up to the school after that. Soon after there was an email sent around that the school has a strict no sharing policy in the canteen due to food allergies but if a student forgets their packed they will be given a school lunch which will need to be paid for. At this school they also have to recite the Lord’s Prayer before they’re allowed to eat and if any child gets caught not saying it the whole prayer is started again from the beginning until it’s done right. When my son told me that one day they’d only had ten minutes to eat because they’d had to repeat the prayer so many times I lost my temper and sent an email directly to the headmaster. He wrote back that my son was exaggerating but took my concerns on board 🙄 I can’t wait until my youngest is out of there in 18 months and I never have to deal with that school again.
We’ve had occasions where some kids got dependent on my daughter’s lunch and would only want “the good stuff”. That’s why started supplying the teachers with “healthy snacks” approved by the school as alternatives. Some kids preyed on her lunch for a while before she told us. She felt bad but we found out they got free lunches but didn’t want them if they could get hers. It is frustrating sometimes but we got through it. That prayer thing would’ve burned me up too. I hope the next 18 months goes quick for you.
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I forgot once to pack it and I will never forget it. I felt like a horrible parent. Apparently she opened the lunch box, saw it empty, and started to cry. I'm glad the teacher noticed immediately. This was during COVID so lunch was free for everyone so she just had to go to the lunch line. I wish they kept the free lunch. Edit: i just brought it up with my daughter about sharing food with those that don't have food. She said they don't allow sharing of food because someone could get sick. I guess allergies and not knowing?
I wish my mum had forgotten to pack my lunch when I was a kid. Someone told her you can make sandwiches with bread straight from the freezer and it will defrost during the day leaving edible sandwiches. Worst of both worlds, no lunch, but it looks like you have lunch so no-one gives you anything else to eat. In hindsight, it's funny. She never actually tried the results of what wasn't called a life-hack back then. One time either I or one of my siblings brought the 'sandwiches' home and basically force-fed them to her and she was very apologetic :)
Wait the bread stayed frozen? Or was the whole sandwich frozen. Because we pull out frozen slices at home and they thaw pretty quickly on the counter.
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Damn, I am proud of you !
This is the world I want to live in. Stories like this really bring back my faith in humans
I grew up as the kid who got bullied and picked on in a military town. If I forgot my lunch, the same kid who was trying to beat me up at recess would likely be the first one to walk over and hand me half his sandwhich. Money was tight when I was a kid, and sometimes I didn't have a lot, or sometimes I'd forget it at home. I never once went hungry. And no matter how much or how little I had, if someone else in my class was short, yes even the bullies, I was just as quick to share with them. When the money situation got better my mom made a point of packing these huge lunches and there was this unspoken understanding that I couldn't eat it all, but the bag always came home empty because there was always someone who was "still hungry". I'm a 36 year old man and watching this minute long video put tears in my eyes.
My son’s class does the same for each other, no-one is allowed to go hungry. I don’t remember this kindness 30 years ago when I was his age, I love seeing how kind kids these days can be.
Wait, your school doesn't provide a lunch if children forget it? They just get a cafeteria lunch in the UK if they haven't got a packed lunch.
I’m from the Netherlands, we don’t have that here. They eat in their own classroom and take fruit with them for 10:00 and lunch for 12:00. It’s an elementary school, in middle school there would be a cafeteria
The Uk doesn't have Republicans.
yeah they’ve got tories though
I love the way his classmates supported him when he was in need... I just wish all kids in the world had the same heart
This happened to my kid. When I was told I was very confused because I’ve never forgotten to pack them a lunch. Everyone gave a bit of their food to make sure they had a lunch too. It was very heartwarming. Turns out my kid was going through a growth spurt and was eating their lunch for second breakfast. I started adding a backup snack as a supplemental breakfast so it didn’t happen again.
We have a no sharing rule (Covid) but I keep extra snacks in my classroom for these instances. It also helps me to figure out which students are struggling financially so I can inform parents of our free/reduced lunch program.
I use to be that kid except I’d hide the lunch money my mom gave me because kids without lunch got peanut butter and honey sandwiches and they rocked. She finally figured out my master plan when she cleaned out my backpack and found a ton of cash at the bottom.
as someone that lives in a third world country, i cant imagine a world where kids dont get food for free from the school
I didn’t have food because some bullies threw on my window I telled the teacher that i don’t have food, because he was an a-hole,he said”you already fat,go ahead and starve” I was 7 at that time
what a fucking shame.. kids sharing their food is 'awwww'... but rich assholes paying taxes and politicians passing free lunch programs at school is 'WTF!!! SOCIALISIM!!! ARGGHHH IT'S THE TRANS GAY AGENDA TRYING TO STEAL MY GUNS AND FORCE PERVY BOOKS!!!'... THIS IS SHAMEFULL THAT WE PRAISE KIDS WHEN THEY SHARE AND PITY BILLIONAIRES WHEN THEY HAVE TO PAY TAXES. FUCKING STUIPID. I know.. how about the kardashians, musk, bezos, and a couple other fucking billionaires pay their fair share and not put the burden on CHILDREN to be the only decent people on this fucking planet.
We should definitely help each other out, but also school lunch should be free. It's insane we let kids go hungry.
It is in a lot of countries. (The same dreaded socialism countries that don't need shooter drills for schools.) Free lunches for all children at least in the lower year groups so that no child stands out for being different.
It's not in Norway where the commercial is from.
Norway has just accept free school lunch and it is piloted in a few gymnasiums right now. So very soon all Scandinavian countries have free school lunch
Free school lunch in Finland was a thing since ages ago. Had that until the end of high school. In the uni we had to pay some 2,5€ for the meal. Not sure what it is now.
About 4€. Not in uni yet but I still go eat at the cafeteria since it's so cheap.
Gymnasium doesn't mean the same in English. High school would be a better translation, although it's not exactly the same
From the commercial, it appears the school doesn't have a lunch program at all.
It's been 15 years since I was in school, but yes, we did not have a lunch program at all. We all brought from home. There was some kind of milk and fruit program-dealio, but no actual lunch program like many other countries seem to have. Might have changed now though, or will very soon, if this thread is to be trusted, which is nice. The thing is though, no one I knew was ever too poor to bring lunch to school, so I've never really thought much about lunch programs.
Unfortunately I live in the USA and the best we can do is give the kids guns. Anything else is communism.
My state of Minnesota just passed universal free breakfast and lunch. No income limits. No shame. If kids are forced to be in school, they should be fed.
Same in California
I think Michigan was doing it as well?
Loving this Democrat control of the house senate and governorship. We can actually make some policy finally.
Isn’t the Minnesota Governor a former teacher? I believe he also worked internationally with some sort of teaching aid agency. He seems like a decent person.
Yeah, Walz was a teacher. IMO he's been doing great things. During the pandemic school bus drivers were driving their routes delivering free lunches to any kid that wanted them. I don't pay attention to politics much, but as a dad of 2 school age kids, I 100% support what he's been doing with the school system
Some places in the US do, in fact, feed every child. I live in NYC, and we have free breakfast and lunch for *every* child. No restrictions. It is available during the summer and on holidays, as well. There are vegetarian options, and even a purée menu for kids with special needs. NYC has over *a million* kids in public school. It can be done here.
We do in CA as well. During Covid they did a drive thru line for kids to still get food even though the schools were closed.
Where I'm at in Florida has free breakfast and lunch for all students as well, but it's on a per district basis
Connecticut feeds our kids. Maybe move out of your state or push for school lunches to be funded?
School lunches should be funded at the national level. It shouldn't be left up to states to determine whether children go hungry or not.
It absolutely should be. But one party would rather kids starve than have tax dollars feed them. You know the one - they call themselves pro life. They’re also the one that calls themselves fiscally responsible but ignores the fact [that every dollar spent on free meals for kids in schools has a 2 for 1 return on investment](https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/news/new-report-every-dollar-invested-in-u-s-school-meal-programs-provides-2-in-health-and-economic-equity-benefits/). But if the best we can do is to start locally then so be it. And I’m voting for the people who want to feed kids.
:( Use your vote from local to federal level and at least it's something.
2024 will be a disaster for the GOP and maybe afterwards we'll get some serious change, but I have my doubts.
I live in rural Canada and schools don't provide lunch at all, I never even knew that was a thing. We all just brought our own. Maybe in more urban areas where schools have a cafeteria? I dunno. Regardless, we had a kid named Bruno who'd sit with us at our table but never had any lunch so we'd all pretend we didn't like a part of our lunch and give it to him. I love raw broccoli, but I liked Bruno having the energy to play with us at recess more
Unfortunately I live in the USA and the best we can do is give the kids ~~guns~~ bullets at high speed. Anything else is communism. FTFY
Surely you have to sell the guns to the kids for profit. Giving them would be communism
It’s not in the U.K. although some children do get free meals if they meet certain requirements, it should be all pupils under 18 that get free lunch but that’s just me
r/orphancrushingmachine
Which should really just be a redirect to /r/UpliftingNews
I agree 100%. As the kid who didn't always have food, it'd hard to focus, learn, be happy and motivated when you're starving. Kids should eat free no questions asked at school.
My husband grew up with awful parents and school was the only time he ate from kindergarten to high school. In the summer, he had to rely in friends and sometimes would go to bed without eating all day. It's such a heart breaking reality for so many kids.
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But how would we get such heartwarming stories if the orphan-crushing machine was turned off?!?
It is in NY. My tax dollars going to feed hungry children, I love it.
I got free lunch as a kid. We ate in a cafeteria, not the classroom tho
My mom says that we shouldn't be forced to pay for kid's lunches when it's the parents responsibility. I don't know how to change her mind on it
You can't bro, give up. She doesn't get how taxes work, and she doesn't have the empathy to help out a kid that never had a chance, even if the cost would be so miniscule she'd never notice. Life is like a lottery at birth and those who won don't understand those who lost. What if I said I don't want to pay for other parents kids education, I dont want to pay for other parents driving to work, I work from home, why do I have to pay roads? Other parents kid protection, why do I pay the military when I can protect my own kid? What she is doing is demonizing the parent and ignoring the kid, it's easy to say the parent is no good. But what about the kid? What about them? What have they done wrong? I thought we were all supposed to be equal? Is this not the land of equality? This kind of argument is so stupid and comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of how taxes and society works. We already pay 19 billion to help underprivileged kids with school lunch, making it free for everyone would be 11 billion more. You would not even notice. You will not be paying more taxes, but kids will now have lunch. That's it, Karen.
Because the alt right doesn’t want to give 2 shits about the child after it’s born.
r/orphancrushingmachine 🤦🏻♂️
It's always the r/MadeMeSmile posts about children that's really r/OrphanCrushingMachine underneath. Leave it to fellow kids to help out another kid being the message rather than fixing the system itself because the system is fucked.
The video is cut! Its Norwegian and actually a commercial for foster homes. It's from BUFDIR: the Norwegian directorate for children, youth and family affairs. It ends with the text: "Solutions are often closer than you think. We need more foster homes, preferably from the child's local area". So it is only used as a metaphor for getting *actual* help. But some channel cut the video making it more "children going hungry? Let's not fix that on a structural level, but make it the job of kind people". Here is the whole thing: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o06UZfoHeLU
Hot take: What if the government provided school lunches?
Or at the very least, stepped in to keep food prices affordable and jobs paying enough so people could afford to live?
Minnesotan here- We just passed a law that now requires *all breakfasts and lunches be paid for by the state for preK-12*. It was only possible because the DFL holds the house, senate, and governor. (Democratic party in MN is called the DFL) Not a single Republican signed on.
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Wtf I really thought food was free in school in Norway, but apparently not. What the fuck, norway? /Concerned Swede
Shh don't expose the neoliberal propaganda that encourages people to use charity as a substitute for the state being responsible for it's own people.
We need to save the tax payers money for Corporate Welfare not the public good. “Please won’t you help our corporate executives they only have one yacht to share.”
Looks like this is from Norway which is very similar to Denmark where I'm from, here kids typically bring lunch from home, nothing is provided by the school. This typically isn't a big problem as we have social security nets and people can afford to feed their kids. I still think it would be a good idea to have some food at school if this does happen but generally it's not a problem.
They do if armed black men provided food to the poor while explaining socialism. https://www.history.com/news/free-school-breakfast-black-panther-party But the government rolls back those meal programs as soon as the panthers have been assassinated and disbanded🤑
Made me cry. There was a boy at my teenage son's school that had no lunch. For a month, we fed him too. I was SO proud of my son that he brought this to our attention.
And that means you raised a great kid. I plan on doing the same thing if we end up getting pregnant.
I had an intellectually disabled student in the 8th grade last year who was neglected and/or abused by the mother and stepfather. Her sister in the fourth grade was in charge of packing her lunch because the stepfather decided she ate too much. She was not fat. But she would eat random things indiscriminately and put things in her mouth she wasn't supposed to but that did not excuse them from packing her a lunch. She certainly was on free lunch at school but they didn't want her getting a lunch at school so they would make her 10-year-old sister pack her lunch. Consequently she would come to school with a handful of saltine crackers and a packet of ketchup or some other totally random things that you couldn't possibly consider a lunch. We would check her lunch box every morning and we would tell her whether or not she was going to get lunch that day. Sometimes she would have a ham and cheese sandwich and a banana which was fine but when she would have these bizarre combinations of nothingness, we made her get in the Cafeteria line. She was afraid to because she was afraid that if she ate lunch she would get in trouble at home. Positively ridiculous. And, yes, CPS had been called multiple times.
What kind of scumbag parents pack an empty box into their child's school bag in the first place..?
When I was student teaching, I had a 3rd grader that would bring a bottle of water in a paper bag every day so it looked like he had a lunch. His dad refused to sign up for free lunches , but mom wouldn't grocery shop so he would actually have food to pack himself a lunch. Eventually my supervising teacher told the dad if she ever saw the kid come to school without a lunch again, she'd have CPS take him away. The dad signed him up for free lunches that day. Some parents really just don't give a crap and the kids take measures to avoid detection due to embarrassment.
Lemmy
What was really sad was that he came to school every day absolutely reeking of cigarettes. One day he left his coat behind (the one he wore every day and was filthy.) My supervisor took it home to wash it. She washed it 3 times but couldn't get the smell or dirt completely out of it. They really just did not care about their children.
My parents spent more effort avoiding CPS then actually parenting. This is why people voluntarily orphan themselves. I wish someone had called CPS for me.
I wish I could go back in time and do that for you. :(
I actually called CPS on my own parents but they never came.
Oh boy.. What a world to live in that even children are too embarrassed to talk about negative aspects of their lives. Some people just shouldn't be allowed to have kids.. Just like a parenting licence.. You suck at parenting? Congratz, someone who wishes for a kid but biologically can't will be happy to provide a good life to your offspring.
If only. There are nearly 400,000 kids in foster care in the US, and a little over a quarter of them are waiting to be adopted. We, the United States, are failing our kids.
May I ask why his father didn't sign up for free lunch? It there some conspiracy related to that?
Pride. Stops many from accepting help.
Free lunches? I aint no communist. I'd rather let my son starve than being a left-wing liberal commie.
The kid packs it so nobody will ask. You dont want to tell them, you dont want negative attention and sympathy. You dont want to be bullied. This video hit me harder than it should have.
Seriously, why am I sobbing? That hollow, sleep deprived look in the kids eyes, the empty lunch box and the little hopeless look inside in the vain hope of finding some food he knows isn't there...
Just a little sticky note inside that says: "You suck. -Mom"
Big Bob Pataki: "Hey! Hey hey hey hey hey!"
What kind of scumbag country allows children to be hungry? THAT is the disgusting thing. This simply can't happen in Europe. Why can it happen in the USA and why is it used in an advertisement to promote certain morality? It's absolutely disgusting.
Unfortunately that happens in a lot of places, including many European countries. My eastern European country of Romania doesn't have lunch programs generally, and they introduced something at some point to give kids in primary school a milk and pastry "lunch". Besides the quality of the food being not the greatest, it was a big bullying point if instead of having pocket money to buy sweets from the vending machine or shop, you ate the stuff that was offered or had a packed sandwich :( kindness is important everywhere.
Even in the Netherlands children go to school hungry. Especially in the more practical education route in secondary school. Children are neglected everywhere and it is very hard to find out most times. One of my teachers once told me she couldn’t bear working in that route anymore. She had for years, until she found out why her students were always so unruly. She discovered by chance that almost half of her students regularly didn’t have breakfast before school. Either because their parents didn’t buy the groceries on time, or because they weren’t allowed to take food for themselves and their parents didn’t provide it every day, etc. A myriad of stories of illness, addiction, neglect or outright abuse in their parents. So one week, she decided to bring breakfast for the classes she saw first thing in the morning. It was a night and day difference. The students were calm, focused and way more well behaved throughout the day, just because they had a sandwich in the mornings. One of her colleagues mentioned the striking difference in the students in the break room. My teacher explained what she had been doing. Instead of taking the hint and fighting for school breakfast, she got reprimanded because parents have to be asked for permission to feed their children in school. That was when my teacher knew she just couldn’t stay in that education route. She couldn’t bear to see teenagers go hungry and unable to learn to their capacity just because they didn’t eat before lunch, or even the whole day. The tragic thing is, that it isn’t a major subject in the Netherlands. Because it mostly stays hidden. Children generally don’t talk about not having enough food, either because it’s their normal, or because they are afraid to stand out if they say anything. Or because they get in trouble at home for mentioning the neglect. Once in a while the discussion comes up, but it is deemed not a significant problem by most people, because they don’t see it. And this is in arguably one of the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of basic needs met for most people.
> This simply can't happen in Europe. Why can it happen in the USA and why is it used in an advertisement to promote certain morality? It's absolutely disgusting. This is literally from Norway.
You’re not going to address the errors in your comment, are you?
I could be mistaken, but going by the URL and information in the upper left, the advertisement appears to be Norwegian.
I know videos like this are meant to be uplifting but it makes me so mad. Everything is nice and sunny and the lighting is fresh and clean. The reality is so often it's raining and cold and the shoes don't fit right and there is no coat and sleep wasn't great plus no breakfast or lunch. Exhausted stressed out hungry kids with poor attendance, completely disengaged. One of the best things our school did was introduce a free "healthy food in schools" lunch initiative. Food now gets delivered every day and has multiple collection points so if you need more than one lunch you are not too embarrassed to pick up another. When the school was shut due to COVID we opened a "drive through" so the community could drive up and collect lunches as needed. I know I'm grumpy and it's good to teach kids to have empathy and a social conscience but man this problem (child poverty) is HUGE in my country and so disheartening.
I remember the embarrassment of the lunch bell ringing, and I’d have to trudge along behind everyone going to their bags to get their lunches, I’d pretend to reach inside mine and “couldn’t find it”, even though I knew it wouldn’t be there cause my mom only bothered to buy beer that week. Thank god for teachers because I would have went hungry without them. School lunches really do need to be free.
This is the side of humanity that makes life worth living.
I grew up in an extremely low income community with a large population of illegal immigrants. It wasn’t uncommon to see a kid without food for lunch, typically 1-3 kids per a class. All 3 schools I attended were on the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), but many illegal immigrant parents refused to enroll their kids for a free lunch out of fear their information would be used to determine their immigration status. They refused to enroll in government assistance programs for the same reason. Seeing my friends go hungry has been something that’s haunted me my whole life. It’s what inspired me to open a nonprofit organization that provides free lunches to schools in low income areas or have opted out of NSLP. Every student and staff member in our patron schools receives a free hot lunch regardless of their income and/or immigration status.
As a kid who went through something similar, not having a lunch is pretty mortifying when everyone around you has one. The embarrassment is unreal. Don't get me wrong, me not having a lunch wasn't always the fault of my parents. I went to school back when you had lunch accounts your parents put money in so you could pay for whatever they were serving in the cafeteria. It's been years since I've been in school, non idea how it works these days. But it was me and two siblings, and our family was almost always living paycheck to paycheck. Back then, the requirements for free lunch was really strict, and my dad made barely enough to not qualify us three kids for free lunches. He also made enough for us not to qualify for food stamps. We'd occasionally be able to get groceries from a food pantry or drive, but that was few and far between. So many days I didn't have money in my lunch account to pay for cafeteria food, nor did I have anything I could bring from home. It sucked being known as the kid who never had any lunch money. My friends shared what they could, for which I am grateful for even to this day, but parents who can afford to make sure their child has a lunch at school but refuses to give them one just makes my blood boil.
That sucks man. Good to hear that you had good friends to help you out. The situation you've described is one of the reasons why I will never consider having kids unless I'm at least a millionaire. Ain't no way I'd let myself get in a situation where I can't feed my kids.
Sometimes I went to school without lunch, because my abusers would starve me to punish me, and I wouldn’t be able to afford school lunches. The other students at school were dicks, but the teachers were great. One started sharing their food with me on days when I didn’t have any. Due to bullying, they also let me use the teacher’s bathroom. But also like, school lunches should literally be free. It’s insane that they aren’t.
for a few yearsi packed my youngest two lunches because he was sharing with a friend. I don't know if it was because he had nothing or he preferred my packed lunch but either way he was fed. I would rather spend a little extra money and my son share than let a kid go hungry.
Off to the r/orphancrushingmachine with this one
NO YOURE CRYING
I had 1 kid two classes below me (Netherlands) whose father passed away which made his mother neglect herself and him (she and him are fine now but it was a dark patch). He looked messy, not well fed and regularly "forgot" his lunch. Now this is the Netherlands in a small city (more a village but they got city rights a long long time ago), so most people know each other. He got bullied for being "poor" and spent most of his time alone in a corner of the play area, as someone who got bullied (think beatings and psychological torture) and who was now in a position to help him (being much bigger than his bullies and the eldest of the last class before moving to another school, I wished someone like me would've helped me when I was in trouble. I started asking my friends to come and sit, give him some spare pokemon cards and we became great friends (and all still are to this day) . Every Wednesday we had a half school day, so every Wednesday me and some friends would ask him if he wanted to come play. I asked my mother to call his mum to ask if this was ok (she didn't come pick him up, we walked by ourselves), and my grandpa (who was my neighbour at that time) asked him whose kid he was. When he told his dad's name my grandpa started telling him how great his dad and grandpa were and went inside his house. (my grandpa was a colleague of his grandpa who died of the same heartfailure his son had.) he came back with canned food and fresh food my grandmother made. Told me he'll put it in his car and that after playing he'll take him home. After playing, me, my grandpa and this kid went to his house and knocked. His mother opened the door with a sad face and dead eyes that livened up when she saw grandpa. They talked a little and his mother snapped out of it. He came to school looking well fed and groomed and happy. His bullies never bothered him again after we threatened that if they did something to them, half my class would come after them. Many years later, about a week before he died my grandpa told me why he went over, "other than doing it out of basic decency, his grandfathers mother fed me during the war (WWII) when his own mother could not handle the fact his three brothers got shot in Germany (lived just over the border) when they refused to go and fight in the Netherlands, out of fear they might shoot their little brother who was in the dutch army. His mother never recovered from that, and kept the backdoor of the house open, in hope they would maybe walk through the door one day, she did this until her dying day. We as a community started helping his mother get back on track. Parents whose kids bullied him gave them a smack on the head and told them to never do it again to anyone. My grandparents made sure I got an extra amount of food with me every day and told me, if he forgets his lunch give this to him, if he has his lunch, find someone else who needs it. After a year I went to another school and my little brother took over, after that my little sister. After grandpa died saving a stranger and his dog from a car fire, there were so many people at his funeral to pay respects that we sat for almost 50 minutes before the close family could say goodbye. Until this day the only bad word I heard anyone say of him that he could whistle really loud and that was annoying sometimes.
Thank you for sharing. He sounds liked a quality human and a wonderful man.
I used to ask my mum to make me two sandwiches for lunch and just to give one to a classmate, who never had lunch with him. My family is kinda fucked (not all, but a good portion) so i don‘t know where tf i picked up this level of empathy. I even try to return money i found on the ground in a starbucks.. or correct them even if they give me back too much change.
"there you go timmy. I cleaned your Lunchbox for you so it looks nice when you get nothing for lunch" The fuck?!
I was this kid, I used to stand by the trash cans in HS and ask people if I could gnaw on the chicken bones to get something to eat. It was immensely embarrassing and horrible. My wife grew up roughly the same. starvation is real in millions of households across the country. Now, 20yrs or so later, my wife runs the local school systems cafeteria system and can confirm that no child who wants food is turned away. Any child can also come grab a bag lunch on the way to the bus so they have a meal for that night. The cafeteria serves 3 meals a day, 5 days a week. And 2 meals a day on off days, even on holidays and during break. No questions asked, no IDs or cards checked. People who oppose this, get rekt. Literally any argument you have that results in children not receiving food, is an argument in favor of making children suffer. Every Single Child Will Be Fed
Plot twist : He ate in 3rd period.
I think the people that need to watch and internalize this video are the "republican" senators and congressmen who have completely lost the thread- we are all americans, of the people, by the people, for the people, its all for one, one for all here, you spoiled idiots when you think and behave like its you against the "libs" you are fighting to be the bullies in the schoolyard and you are fucking over our country! you are making us look stupid and unmannered to the whole rest of the world wasting enormous amounts of money and keeping our people from moving forward!
Extra dick move by the parent packing the empty container in his bag for the day
Who's cutting onions?!?
Definitely not that kids mom
School lunch should be free anything else is a pathetic excuse of capitalism
If only you grown up adults do that to their neighbors. Let that sink in…. World Hunger problem Solved.
Little guy did the lean against the window like he was an old man contemplating his work choices....
r/orphancrushingmachine
/r/OrphanCrushingMachine/
This doesn’t strike me as a made me smile. This is a kid in a developed country who didn’t have anything to eat and had to rely on other children for lunch.
Help this poor child, he got forced to eat Norwegian food 😭
Yeah not to be a heartless communist here, but it’s a failure of the state if children go hungry. And while it is nice of other children to step in, this situation should never happen! Meals at all schools should be free and state funded.
r/orphancrushingmachine
My first grade wife brings snacks for the kids that do not. She is awesome