I’ve been trying to bring my own lunch to work more lately, but last week, I went out to eat.
With $5 in my pocket, I joined my son at his Austin ISD elementary school, where we both ate the school lunch. As I’ve written before, he eats the school lunch every day, as well as breakfast, which he eats at his desk, along with every other student in his class. His school is one of more than 50 elementary, middle and high schools that offers Breakfast in the Classroom, an initiative to bring the first meal of the day to students while they start their day.
His school is also one of more than 80 schools that has expanded free lunch and breakfast to every student. This saves me $4.50 each day ($1.50 for breakfast, $3 for lunch), but the bigger effect is that when breakfast and lunch are widely offered for free or at a reduced cost, they are more widely consumed. This reduces the stigma that has been around for generations between the kids who can afford to bring Lunchables and other home-packed lunches and those who rely on whatever the school cafeteria is serving because they might be struggling with food insecurity at home.