food for your thoughts

I was eight and my parents were beginning their separation, and their divorce.  My sister and I had the great luxury of attending private school.  Of course, since my parents were divorcing, my sister and I had to transfer into the public school system.  We didn't know what kind of a journey we were about to embark.  Of course things would be quite different.

We got a letter from my school welcoming us to the public school system and enclosed was a list of supplies we had to buy: paper, pencils, tissues, manilla construction paper, and other miscellaneous items.  This was only the beginning of the costs.

Then we found out that we had to pay for lunch every day and there weren't a lot of options.  Pizza, french fries, chicken nuggets, pasta, goulash, or weird creamy dishes that were unidentifiable.   Lunch wasn't something to look forward to, as it wasn't always appetizing.  These things haven't really changed for our youth today in the public school system.  Food for your thoughts as an outsider looking in to what children are consuming today.  A lot of kids don't have options on what to eat for lunch because they are in poverty and get reduced price lunches or free lunches which contain minimal nutritional value.

It really is heartbreaking to see what children are forced to eat, or some of them don't eat at all because it doesn't taste good or they can't figure out what is on their plate.