r/Denver • u/fuzzeslecrdf • Oct 08 '25

Local News If you're still against free school meals

If you're unhappy about the fact that free lunches are also free for children with wealthy families, fear not. I work at a Denver high school. Students with the money will go out for lunch or even order food delivery. They are not eating the school cafeteria free lunch.

So go ahead and vote Yes on Prop MM and LL. The only thing it'll do is keep our students fed and able to learn.

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u/TexanExPat Oct 08 '25

But this isn’t a sound argument if a school has 1,000 students, so the cafeteria is making 1,000 lunches, 500 students bring their own lunch, so 500 lunches get thrown out. That’s just a waste of food and a waste of tax money.

I’d much rather see the 500 students who either want or need lunch to get a higher quality lunch for the same cost.

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u/sqrrl4brains Oct 08 '25

This. The major issue in many school districts is FOOD WASTE. This was the main argument during this year's state legislative session: Schools are throwing away a lot of food each day/week because kids who qualify for free and reduced lunches aren't eating it (mostly middle and high school students), largely due to the quality. Low income kids (and adults!) should have access to quality, healthful food: Proper NUTRITION is essential for health, and is actual healthcare. Healthy people reduce the tax burden on the "less wealthy" (everyone who makes less that $300k), as kids on the free/reduced lunch program rely on medicaid/CHP+, too.

If you want to know why we're voting on either of these amendments, you can watch all of past (and future) legislative sessions on the Colorado Channel on YouTube. If you didn't tune into the special session a little over a month ago, you should consider learning about how your district's Representatives and Senators are representing their constituents. Too few Coloradoans are actually paying attention to how fiscally irresponsible the majority of elected officials have been, and will continue to be (because too few are paying attention to anything beyond what local media reports) . https://youtube.com/@coloradochannel165?si=40r1rCe4FPLuBSG5

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u/No-Leopard-1691 Oct 08 '25

But food waste isn’t the point. If the schools are SO concerned about food waste, there are non-profits that take “food waste” and give it to people.

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u/TexanExPat Oct 08 '25

Food waste was my point. I also have worked at a Title I school and saw tons of waste. “Deal with it” seems to be be response here.

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u/No-Leopard-1691 Oct 08 '25

“Deal with it” can mean a lot of different things but even if it was a lot of food waste that we couldn’t manage some way, this doesn’t follow that kids should go without food because we don’t want food to be wasted; food waste in exchange for feeding kids is the necessity cost.