Survey time!

[feuervogel]

Anent my previous post, I thought of a simple, one-question survey. The individual responses are only viewable to me, so the whole world won't be able to see the results.

Poll #10111

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 21

I qualified for free or reduced price lunches when I was in school.

Yes, from K-12
3 (14.3%)

Yes, for some portion of time
1 (4.8%)

No
12 (57.1%)

I'm not from the US
5 (23.8%)

Comments

[luckykitty]

Well, I did not live in the US until 10th grade, when my family was beginning to be much better off.

[chalcopyrite]

I was only in school in the US for 10th and 11th grades.

(From network; was intrigued both by this question and the previous one.)

[anthimeria]

This actually is interestingly related to an ongoing conversation a friend and I have: that public schools in the US are IN NO WAY created equal.

If the wealthy white suburban public school I went to had HAD free or reduced-price lunches (which they did not), I probably would've qualified for some portion of the time. As it was, the class barrier was whether or not you had to bring your lunch from home, because if you did, you couldn't afford the school lunches.

[feuervogel]

That's fascinating, because the free/reduced lunch is a federal program. The people who count things quantify poverty within a school district by how many students qualify for free/reduced lunch.

[quinfirefrorefiddle]

I carried a lunchbox for twelve years, my parents never tried to sign me up for lunches. Of course, in my second school district the schools were next to cemeteries, so the mystery meat rumors were... Different. The only time I might have qualified would have been just after the divorce had I gone to school in mom's town right away, but I stayed with dad for a couple years so she had some time to save up.

[feuervogel]

I carried my own lunch most of the time, but in elementary school, I got the differently-colored punch card that I got to use on Fridays (pizza day!)

[krait]

I brought my own lunches, pretty much K-12; I don't know if we qualified for (or if the schools I went to had) discounted lunches. All I know is that my mother found it cheaper to send lunch with me, and we didn't have much money to spare (soda was not a thing in our household, for instance) but I certainly didn't recognise the tight budget for what it was, at that time.

[feuervogel]

I brought my own lunch (hell, I even MADE my own lunch starting in kindergarten...I have a huge independent streak), but we qualified.

[corpsefairy.livejournal.com]

Huh. We probably qualified, but I never got free lunches in elementary school. I have no idea why not. Maybe I was too picky? I really have no idea.

I didn't take the poll because I don't know the right answer.

[feuervogel]

I usually took my own lunch all through school, but I remember getting the specially-colored punch card that showed I paid less than everyone else. (I got school lunch on Fridays, which was pizza day.) By high school, we qualified for free lunch.

[beth_leonard]

There's no "not sure" answer. My parents wouldn't have taken them even if it were available.

Probably not, but my parents could not afford any "extras" that I really wanted like gymnastics lessons and playing sports when I was in school. I did do scouts, and by the time I was in Junior High I was paying for all my extras myself out of babysitting money. I started sitting professionally in the 4th grade.

My parents were very prudent financially and saved everything. By the time I was out of college 3 years I was earning more money than my dad, but they were able to help me go to the college I wanted to go to most.

My mother was the first in her family, and the only one of her 4 siblings to go to college. I think both of my father's parents were college educated.

--Beth