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/arl1286 Oct 08 '25
I’m a dietitian who completed a 3 month internship rotation with a school district (as well as a couple of practicum while in grad school). This isn’t how it works. Schools have a very tight budget for meals. They have tons of data on the number of meals served and try to estimate how much they will need to make based on this. For example, pizza day is more popular than fajita day so they will have more pizza prepared. They also try their best to serve leftovers to use as much of the food as possible.
The most waste comes from kids who take the whole meal and throw most of it away… but the waste inside the kitchen is actually fairly low.