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Came in here just to find this comment, knowing it would be here, and upvote. Can't help but think the few down votes are just people that don't understand the reference. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/orphan-crushing-machine

I had to look at the community to make sure it wasn't OrphanCrushingMachine

Beat me to it by 19 minutes

It is biblical. Charity to people like Paul was freely given out of love vs welfare-taxation system we have now.

Of course a good person who was a Christian could reason out

"Paul was in Rome so he must have seen the free donations of food given by the emperor to the city's poor but didn't comment on it. Which meant that when he talks about charity he is talking about a supplement, yes a supplement not a first response, to actual effective large scale operations. I should be happy with both. A good government that works hard that I add too. Not a bad government I helped create and stick a bandaid on by throwing a twenty in the collection plate".

A pity this doesn't seem to occur to them. Despite the theological wiggle room.

But that would set them up with unreasonable expectations for adulthood! Gotta prepare them for their future of struggling to get by.

School lunch debt is the so incredibly dystopian that I hope 20-30 years from now people will have to use an internet search to find out what it meant to people in this decade. Like it’s so unabashedly wrong as a thing, I hope we look at like when Bayer made heroin and bloodletting was in practice.

One of the orphans jammed the machine.

in capitalism, by the time you were put into this world, you already have a fuck ton of debt

Pretty soon it will be the norm that when you graduate high school you take your first bankruptcy and clean your slate before your life really starts to matter. Hell it's only 7 years, you got 4 years of college so only 3 more till you can start living again! Well I guess after you somehow pay off those new college loans as well.

Just like in Christianity we are all born with sin, in America we are all born with debt.

Some before they leave elementary

Does this qualify as aboringdystopia content?

Peak orphan crushing machine

States that opted out of federal funding for school lunches (because fuck them poor kids) let hungry children run up a tab on cafeteria lunches. Then they punish and publicly shame them for not paying. Why? FREEDOM. 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸

https://soeonline.american.edu/blog/what-is-lunch-shaming/

"Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn gave to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward, they were all given invoices and in his majestic mercy he allowed them all an extra 30 days to pay."

Matthew 15:32

There is a federal lunch subsidy program, and many states also have their own lunch programs. The program even extends through the summer.

Several caveats.

First, not every state participates. This is free money that states could use to feed hungry kids, and some states are just like "nah, fuck them kids."

Second, parents generally have to apply for the program. You fill out some forms, and the kids get subsidized lunches. That's a problem, because not every parent knows the programs exist, not every parent speaks English or Spanish or another language the school might be thoughtful enough to have the forms translated into. At my kids' elementary school, during Covid, we learned that there are 32 different first languages spoken in the homes of students. Sharing information is a problem.

Third, the subsidized lunch is often a lesser meal than what the paying kids get. It might be a cheese and white bread sandwich, an apple sauce, and some milk. Now, sure, if you're hungry, food is better than no food. But kids know what the brown bag lunch means. It's embarrassing, creates division across income levels, and can encourage some hungry kids to choose not to accept the food rather than face ridicule.

But you know what's amazing? During Covid, school meal providers were facing financial ruin. They had contracts to provide food for a bunch of kids that weren't in the schools. Sysco and Aramark and many others were staring at a total loss for all of their school lunch programs, and the government bailed them out. The state and federal governments found a way to pay for all the school lunches and give them away for free to all students in every state. There wasn't even a debate, and no politicians opposed it.

The money was just there, no strings or hoops or pork barrel haggling. Major industry is facing crisis, and suddenly we can afford to feed all the kids, no exceptions, no forms or paperwork. Local food banks were overflowing with frozen meals and fresh produce and all the tiny cartons of milk you can imagine.

Now, you could say that Covid was an emergency, that the collapse of the school lunch industry would have horrible economic ramifications, and that would be true.

But it wasn't even expensive, and that was for everybody. There's no reason we could not afford to provide free lunches to any child in America who asks for it, and I mean a real lunch. The same thing the kid who paid is getting. School cafeterias throw away more food than the value of food given away as part of free lunch programs AND unpaid lunch debts combined. Feeding every child would be a rounding error, and nobody would be stigmatized or penalized because their parents couldn't afford their lunch.

Hungry kids don't learn. Feed them all.

Whoa now buddy. Can't have that socialism in muh murica. How else will these poor for profit institutions keep posting record profits?

*edit In some places maybe... but that and may other services have been gutted. sadly.

I fucking hate massive corporations laundering their reputations like this. If they cared, they'd lobby for higher taxes on the rich to pay for free school meals and a bazillion other things that govt should provide but doesn't.

Yeah, I was thinking for what arby’s pays lobbyists to avoid taxes and wage increases, they could lobby once more for higher wages, higher taxes on wealthy and corporations, lower retail cost, and more government dollars for free, comprehensive, quality food, education and healthcare and just fix the problem. The C employees and board wouldn’t even have to do without another yacht to do it, just budget better.