When I was in elementary school, we got up early and our parents made us eat a good breakfast before school each day. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, we heard over and over again. Do your homework before you are allowed to go out to play, keep your room clean if you want your allowance, do your house chores or you will be grounded etc.  Rules, rules and more rules.   My Mother never backed down in taking on the personal responsibilities that come with raising a family. My Father departed this earth at an early age.  There was no bigger government welfare check coming in on the wings of a unicorn just because we were blessed with a family of six children. My mother raised all six children by herself  for an extended amount of time before she remarried, and she worked two and three jobs to keep food on the table for many of those years, yet never once did she stoop to taking handouts from the government that were taken from other hard working people in the form of taxes.  That is not how we were raised. You want something, children included, and you got off your rear ends and worked for it.

         We brown-bagged our lunches, which many times contained the dreaded bologna sandwich which we all hated, but ate anyway, lest we go hungry. Mother always tried to make sure we had fruit and other healthy foods when possible, but sometimes we just had the plain old bologna sandwich. We sometimes had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and lemme tell you, we considered ourselves to be the richest kids around when we saw the P B & J in ourlunch !  Imagine my disgust when I encountered the following announcement in a local newspaper about the breakfast and lunch for irresponsible parents in Pasco County, Florida. Keep in mind that a good percentage of these students are enrolled  in the “free” program. Of course it isn’t free to the taxpayers of this nation. Here is the menu for Pasco County Schools:

   Pictured at left are children in a Pasco County School.

Elementary breakfasts

All elementary breakfasts include a choice of one main fare item, one fruit or 100 percent fruit juice and one milk choice plus an option for cereal with graham crackers or yogurt with graham crackers.

Monday: Sausage in a pancake.

Tuesday: Scrambled eggs with wheat toast.

Wednesday: Cinnamon French toast.

Thursday: Breakfast combo roll.

Friday: Zac Omega Bar.

Elementary lunches

All elementary lunches have a choice of milk and two side dishes. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are available daily. Daily side dish options include fresh fruit, vegetables and juice.

Monday: Hamburger, cheeseburger or chicken BLT salad.

Tuesday: Home-style turkey and gravy with mashed potatoes or a tuna salad sandwich.

Wednesday: Fiesta tacos or Mexican pizza.

Thursday: Breakfast for Lunch: Pancakes with sausage, a breakfast sandwich or a breakfast burrito.

Friday: Big Daddy Pizza Wedge or peanut butter or yogurt dipper platter.

Middle and high school breakfasts

All secondary breakfasts include a choice of one main fare item, one fresh fruit or 100 percent fruit juice and one milk choice.

Monday: French toast sticks, breakfast combo, yogurt fruit parfait, ultimate breakfast round, muffins or cereal with muffin loaf.

Tuesday: Hot breakfast sandwich, yogurt fruit parfait, ultimate breakfast round, muffins or cereal with Pop Tart.

Wednesday: Cinnamon French toast, breakfast burrito, yogurt fruit parfait, ultimate breakfast round, muffins or cereal with muffin loaf.

Thursday:Pancakes, waffles, yogurt fruit parfait, organic Zac Omega bar, muffins or cereal with Pop Tart.

Friday: Breakfast pizza, whole wheat cinnamon bun, whole grain oatmeal chocolate chip bar or cereal with muffin loaf. 

Pasco County Schools are serviced by FNS, or Food and Nutrition Services.

Current meal prices

Reduced Price Breakfast: $0.30
Reduced Price Lunch: $0.40

Full Price Breakfast
Elementary: $1.25
Secondary: $1.40

Full Price Lunch
Elementary: $2.00
Secondary Classic: $2.50
Secondary Alternative: $3.00

We are a self-funded department, using only federal funds, grants,and monies generated from the sale of school meals and catering to provide a nutritious, low cost school lunch and breakfast to Pasco County students.  

     Excuse me, but what part of self-funding includes the heavy dose of Federal tax money you admit to above ?  While the mission statement sounds great on paper it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this program needs to be looked into further here. Just what gives the school board the right to take breakfast time away from responsible families in order to further dig into tax funding that promotes less family time and  ignores personal responsibility? A further look at their web page mentioned above talks about things such as “summer feeding.”

Pasco County FNS offers breakfast, lunch, summer feeding, and after-school snacks programs to Pasco County students enrolled in public and charter schools, day cares, Headstart and Early Headstart programs, and infant feeding programs.  We also offer an Adult Meal Program for administrators and their staff, and cater meals for school-based functions.  We serve approximately 2.25 million student breakfasts and 6.2 million lunches annually. (emphasis mine)  

        After school snacks? Why not dinner too? Why send the children home at all, if irresponsible parents want the government to feed and raise their children ?

    Under the school price menu above, how many of the students that qualify for the next to nothing cost of those meals are also receiving food stamps ?  Are there checks and oversight to ensure that an irresponsible parent(s) that doesn’t make the effort to properly feed their own children at home, has the equal amount deducted from their food stamp entitlement  to prevent them from being a double-dipping deadbeat on taxpayers wallets ?  I will tell you that the answer to that is no.  This is an extension of welfare benefits for largely irresponsible people that feel it is the job of the hard working people to support their irresponsibility. Breakfast, Lunch and summer meals when school is out ?

     Meal time was a family bonding time in our house. Problems were discussed and dealt with together. Lessons were both taught and learned at the table. This instills family unity and teaches personal responsibility in helping to prepare the family meals and cleaning up afterward. It also helps build a substantial work ethic, that says if you want to eat, you will help prepare the meal and clean up afterwards, or at least it did in my upbringing.  Today,  the nanny-state welfare mentality is not only proving to be a big cause of America’s economic problems, but it is also enabling the destruction of our society’s family values, where children are no longer taught the value of a dollar, and the fact that you have to work for what you want out of life.

    Yes indeed breakfast may still be the most important meal of the day for our children, but the true value of it comes from the family bonding and parental guidance we receive at the table, not just the nutrition. This is a start to their school-day,  so why not send them off  with the confidence and support that only a parent’s love can give.

Update from Pasco County Schools  Free meals program.

Free & Reduced Price Meal Information

Information regarding free and reduced-price meals is included below. To continue directly to our online free and reduced-price meal application, click the button below.

 The District School Board of Pasco County participates in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs.  Through these programs we offer free and reduced-price meals to students from families who meet certain income requirements determined by the U.S. Government.

Free & Reduced Price Meal Information

Information regarding free and reduced-price meals is included below. To continue directly to our online free and reduced-price meal application, click the button below.

 The District School Board of Pasco County participates in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs.  Through these programs we offer free and reduced-price meals to students from families who meet certain income requirements determined by the U.S. Government. Each new school year all students that wish to participate in the free and reduced-priced meal program must submit a new free and reduced-price meal application. Students are qualified for free or reduced-price meals through three (3) different methods. The first method is through direct certification; the second is through students that are identified as a homeless or migrant student; and the third is through the free and reduced-price meal application process.

Qualification Methods

Direct Certification

This process involves a computer match of district students to information provided by the Department of Education, which marks students in families receiving Food Stamps, TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), and FDPIR benefits as eligible for free meals at their school sites. If you qualify, you will receive written notification on approval.

Homeless, Migrant and Runaway Students

Students that are identified by the district as Homeless, Migrant, or Runaway are entitled to free meals at their school site. For Homeless, Migrant, and Runaway students to receive free meals, the district’s Homeless, Migrant, and Runaway Liaison must certify, sign and submit a listing of students that are recognized as homeless or migrant. Food and Nutrition Services District Office must keep the student list on file at the Food and Nutrition Services District Office. These students do not have to submit a meal application.   

       Who says there is no such thing as a “free lunch?”  It is all free for the non-tax paying career welfare families. It is just the fact that the working families carry the burden of supporting the irresponsible baby-makers which are the mainstay of career welfare families, which is  the disgusting part they don’t want you to know.  This FNS  “company” should be made to operate without any taxpayer funding. Waste, fraud and abuse are always rampant when you have a company that is half-private and half government-run. I am going to pursue the FNS salary structure, and see just what that turns up in the near future.

In Pasco County, Superintendent, Heather Fiorentino, makes $136,776 which leads a list of 15- hundred thousand dollar employees.