Great good deed.

[imwjl]

The school district where my kids are had an anonymous donor ask how to help. With school meals threatened and some poor kids often having a negative balance the person funded paying for negative balances in school lunch accounts.

I confess that I didn't think about how much of an issue this is prior to my wife's reassignment to kids in difficult circumstances and befriending a guy who does STEM tutoring. Some groups or kids or stories get cherry picked but my wife sees kids who must spend a lot of their efforts just to be safe and not raped. My friend who tutors said sharing his own health snacks helped kids and more kids showed up when word of that got around.

Anyway, it won't save the world but I thought it was cool that someone approached the school district and chose to help a real and expensive problem as an anonymous donor. I confess that I'd probably not know as much about the problems kids and schools face if my wife wasn't reassigned from teaching mostly the best to having a lot of kids in very difficult circumstances.

[lfoo6952]

Thanks for sharing your wonderful story. That small gesture does save the world. Even if it impacts just 1 kid, that counts.

God bless.

[Nyghthawk]

None of us are going to save the world. With that caveat, every good deed, every kindness adds just a little to the overall environment in which we all live. Good on this individual and every other person who takes some small portion of their day, of their resources to help someone else.

Blessed be.

[SFCRetired]

First off I commend anyone who offers their resources to help where problems exist.

[cmd612]

imwjl, my sincere thanks for sharing a wonderful story about someone doing good.

[cotten]

Where I live, 100% of public school students qualify for free school breakfast and lunch. (I won't get into why.) Still, some concerned teachers and administrators noticed that kids were coming back to school on Mondays hungry, having had little to eat since Friday lunch. Our church began a Blessing Bag program. It's basically a paper bag filled with nutritious-but-tasty, no-preparation food, enough to get one kid through Saturday and Sunday without going hungry. The students who receive them are carefully chosen by those most knowledgeable of their home situations. Great care is taken to avoid them feeling singled out. We now provide about 270 of these Blessings Bags per week. Other churches and civic organizations have joined the effort, either through providing funds or things to go in the bags. Some are doing their own version of these bags. It's all completely voluntary, and no government funds are used. (Last Summer, we even provided a way for these Blessing Bags to be delivered to these children for the 8-10 weeks school was not in session.)

I also will not get into the discussion that was generated when one parent, who was not providing for her children, discovered that these bags came from a church. Suffice it to say that she was not pleased, and the ruckus she raised drew attention from official child protection services. Now she is unhappy about having to either provide for her children or having them taken away from her by the government.

cotten

[imwjl]

I missed something here. My wife didn't become a teacher to be rich or lazy. She was taught by and inspired by this legendary guy who overcame poverty, race issues, played for the 49rs and was a legendary educator.

http://isthmus.com/archive/you-are-h...ike-1939-2008/

28 years of teaching with ever diminishing wages and benefits have her firmly in the mid-trim minivan and no maid demographic. Now she's facing loss of decent insurance after several years of wage cuts or no growth. How do we teach kids or maybe better put develop kids who can compete with the world if the schools are without appropriate resources?

I'm pretty deep into what schools do via 3 kids middle through high school and director in an organization that has 450+ kids in youth programs. I mostly see people doing a good job with resources and blow hards who like to make trouble from the exceptions vs the norm.

I suppose it could all work better if you had to have a license to parent with the sorts of measures we've met. I'm sure a make no babies without education, jobs, and savings law would be unpopular.

A teacher of my kids has commented she's lucky her husband is a physician because otherwise she could not afford the career she loves. How do we arrange that fortunate scenario all over?

It has been a really big challenge for my kids' schools to take care of the bottom and top at the same time. I'll be honest. That's part of why the news really struck me. Taking care of both makes all the difference for some.

Only a small percentage of the troubled kids my wife's taught really go on with amazing lives but some do. It's very important. It's also important that some get help for modest lives. Some she's taught have become baggers, janitors and kitchen help where I work instead of street people.

The poor and homeless kids she's taught who are motivated and have a chance to exceed typically do very well for their circumstances.

Back to topic. I think it's really special that an anonymous donor chose to feed dozens of kids neither party will probably ever know. I am glad that my wife's taught challenged kids for so long and that I've been able to realize the struggle some have to just get through a day in relative safety. If you were a homeless 15 year old girl many want to rape trying to get educated would you appreciate a safe place with a meal?

[imwjl]

I come from an off the boat family who did well but am so fortunate to be a baby boomer that had well funded schools and the then reasonable affordable good University Of WI.

My wife comes from the blue collar side of town and side of her family that seemed to be blue collar or clergy.

Both of is are SO fortunate to have had the infrastructure to get educations we have. I remember as a kid playing with kids but on the edge of my little town's elite. My education was the chance to catch up.

[Mr. Jelly]

This is not the quote, but it's my take on it.

If you knew one more thing about another persons situation you would change your opinion of them.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by cotten

Where I live, 100% of public school students qualify for free school breakfast and lunch. (I won't get into why.) Still, some concerned teachers and administrators noticed that kids were coming back to school on Mondays hungry, having had little to eat since Friday lunch. Our church began a Blessing Bag program. It's basically a paper bag filled with nutritious-but-tasty, no-preparation food, enough to get one kid through Saturday and Sunday without going hungry. The students who receive them are carefully chosen by those most knowledgeable of their home situations. Great care is taken to avoid them feeling singled out. We now provide about 270 of these Blessings Bags per week. Other churches and civic organizations have joined the effort, either through providing funds or things to go in the bags. Some are doing their own version of these bags. It's all completely voluntary, and no government funds are used. (Last Summer, we even provided a way for these Blessing Bags to be delivered to these children for the 8-10 weeks school was not in session.)

I also will not get into the discussion that was generated when one parent, who was not providing for her children, discovered that these bags came from a church. Suffice it to say that she was not pleased, and the ruckus she raised drew attention from official child protection services. Now she is unhappy about having to either provide for her children or having them taken away from her by the government.

cotten

I've been active in the JCC in my area and followed a controversy over similar lunches a church group did where my daughter goes to school. The solution for the problem you mention is really easy and the morally correct thing to do.

The JCC here offers the charity with no branding. It's the perfect solution. It does the charity, it helps the problem, and no brand association - just the anonymous giving - doesn't influence the youngsters mind except for the goodness that occurred.

When the JCC had scholarships for the preschool my kids attended there was the option for no religion - just the education and care of kids in need.

For the controversy where my daughter goes to school congregations and groups split. Some got it right via doing the charity and no branding. A few churches joined, and some stood very strong with their branding and created controversy and stress where there was no need. The latter really made a big mess and hurt their said goal - feed the kids.

For that issue we need to remember kids are not so dumb. A lack of heavy branding hasn't caused my kids to want to switch or miss the important parts of it.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by cotten

I also will not get into the discussion that was generated when one parent, who was not providing for her children, discovered that these bags came from a church. Suffice it to say that she was not pleased, and the ruckus she raised drew attention from official child protection services. Now she is unhappy about having to either provide for her children or having them taken away from her by the government.

cotten

It would seem you are getting into the discussion. If it's not in bounds here, why get into it?

The reaction of this woman is unfortunate. Less so than her not providing for her children which is, of course, unconscionable.

imwjl's branding solution seems quite on point.

[BrunoBlack]

This will probably go against the grain for many, but I think it would be nice if one hot lunch meal each day was included as part of a student's education -- no questions asked. If students would rather pack their own lunch it would be their personal choice.

[Cabarone]

God bless you for that...and yeah, none of us can change the whole world, but we can do all we can to make out little patch of it better...

[00Buck]

Originally Posted by Haasome

This will probably go against the grain for many, but I think it would be nice if one hot lunch meal each day was included as part of a student's education -- no questions asked. If students would rather pack their own lunch it would be their personal choice.

Plus one. Speaking from experience, poor kids know they're poor. They don't need to be reminded in the cafeteria.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by 00Buck

Plus one. Speaking from experience, poor kids know they're poor. They don't need to be reminded in the cafeteria.

A thoughtful, empathetic and wise observation.