Admin and Mother React to Having to Pay for Lunch.

Recently Knox County Schools have made changes with lunch prices. They’ve made lunch no longer free. We have to pay $3 for lunch. 

Many students have reported that they don’t have the money to pay for lunch or they don’t think the food is good enough to pay $3 everyday for lunch. This seems to have become a problem with several people. Several students have gone hungry from the simple fact that school lunches are pricey and not all that good. 

A mother of a former CHS student says, “I think it’s ridiculous that parents have to pay because they don’t have the money to pay for lunches. The poverty in America hasn’t changed, if anything it’s grown more now because of things like this sudden change from free to having to pay for lunch.” 

This statement can be backed up by many experiencing this unfortunate situation. National poverty rates have had an amazing increase within the year 2021 and 2022. In 2021, poverty rates were at a whopping 11.6 percent with 37.9 million people in poverty. In 2022, poverty rates were at a slight increase of 14.4 percent.  

Assistant principal Karyn Lee says, “There are pros and cons in paying for lunch. It teaches budgeting skills.” Plenty of parents and staff would agree that budgeting money at a young age is important in learning to manage your money. Students should be taught how to budget money because not everything is free once you get out of highschool. Assistant principal Karyn Lee also stated, “ I do wish they would look into more vendors and more variety in choice of food with the county.” Plenty of people would agree that there needs to be more food choices. Our main foods are always nuggets, pizza, nachos, cheeseburger, etc. There definitely needs to be more options. Not everyone likes these foods every week. If anything they should have tastier more health options along with the choice of food we are offered now. 

If you are struggling with payments towards lunch for your kids or you’re a high school student paying for yourself. There are papers in the office that you can sign to get free lunch or lower prices on lunch food. You can also visit www.lunchspplication.com. This website is also available for any information you need on the free lunch and you can apply for your child to receive this option of free lunch.