Five schools chosen to pilot free meals program

Another initiative that minimises parental and individual responsibility. Surely schools have more pressing issues.

For various reasons kids are rocking up to school without having had breakfast and maybe some without any lunch.
I don’t know how this program will be run, however, my concern is that the kids getting the free feed, may not be those from families doing it tough, but simply kids too lazy or undisciplined to get out of bed at eat breakfast at home.
Some years ago, a friend of mine was involved in a charity-run breakfast program at a primary school. The numbers having breakfast varied depending on what was being offered, that said, anyone who turned up got a feed, regardless. They measured their success by the number of kids being feed, not by those who were in need, because no one knew who was needy.
At our own son’s school, several kids didn’t eat lunch; not because they didn’t have lunch, it was simply because “mum” made sandwiches they didn’t like, or they’d rather just play with their friends. We know this to be a fact, because these kids dropped their sandwiches in our son’s lunch box and he ate them! Needless to say, the next day, the same thing. Our son put on a lot of weight before we discovered what was happening.
If a kid comes from a family in need, I’m absolutely supportive of assistance, but I can’t help feeling this government program potentially just “enables” undisciplined behavior and encourages a feeling of self-entitlement in our young people.

I can see the potential benefits of such a scheme. We know that eating a good breakfast (and presumably lunch too) helps with learning outcomes. But the emphasis here is on the word ‘good’. I went to boarding school (many years ago now) and I shudder when I remember the rubbish food that we were fed!