Open letter to Cherry Hill parents: Pay your lunch bills (Opinion)

In days of yore, the consequence of not paying your bills was not receiving the goods. Or, alternatively, being charged with theft. This was common sense. In Cherry Hill, in 2019, these rules no longer apply. The school district is being intimidated by social pressure into giving out free lunches to kids whose parents can’t or won’t pay their lunch bills.

First, the school tried giving a special lunch to the children of the scofflaws but then that lunch, a tuna fish sandwich, was deemed not good enough since it would be an obvious sign to other kids that the tuna-eater’s parent didn’t pay. Hence, the term “Lunch-shaming.”

Next, it was decided that it WAS okay to shame the school administration into feeding the kids anyway. With no other recourse, the district decided to prohibit those kids from participating in special activities. Well, of course, everyone cried foul at that suggestion as well.

This story has garnered national attention from presidential wannabe Elizabeth Warren, as well as a whiny push from Freehold students to get Governor Murphy to sign a law giving non-lunch payers free lunch. (Oh, by the way, “Free” means you and I, the taxpayers, are on the hook for it.)

Now remember, there is already a program for free lunch and free breakfast in every school district for kids who cannot afford to pay. So all you have to do is fill out the forms. But some of these entitled parents can’t even bother to do that. In the old days, the result of that irresponsibility would be that your kid would shoulder the burden of your irresponsibility. Not so, today.

Today, children must be happy at all times and their lives must be filled with rainbows, lollipops and bunny rabbits 24-7. So, rather than have a kid experience an uncomfortable moment, let’s just give them stuff for free. Where will this end? If parents don’t pay for their kids’ football uniforms will we be supplying those for free, too? If you don’t send in the money for the field trip, does the kid still get to go?

I have an idea. It’s an old concept from ancient times, but it just might work here. You pay your bill, you get your food. You don’t pay? Little Emma or Liam has to sponge off a friend like in the good old days— when we walked to school uphill both ways.

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