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Show Uncle Sam is generous in school lynch program Reprinted from the-Box Elder News and Journal One of the beneficial programs available to all students in Box Klder district is school lunch which makes nutritious meals available to students at a relatively low cost. In the coming school year, elementary ele-mentary level children will be charged 45 cents for each meal while the price for secondary students will 1)0 50 cents. That's a bargain. The federal government makes it possible to charge so little. It subsidizes subsi-dizes milke purchases and supplements supple-ments the program with food commodities. com-modities. We've long held the opinion that hot lunch or school lunch whatever what-ever you choose to call it is good because it guarantees that every participating child will receive at least one nutritionally balanced meal each school day. Not only has Uncle Sam's generosity genero-sity helped to bring it about, his beneficence is expanding.' Here's how : With Washington footing most of the bill, free and reduced price meals are offered to families, based on size and income of the family. A reduced price lunch can be purchased for 10 cents. And who's eligible for this lower price? Children from a family of 12 persons (including mom and dad) with an income of up to $24,310 are eligible. While conceding that today's inflationary in-flationary impact can make it tough to keep a large family in shoes and piano lessons, we are strained to consider $24,310 income as near poverty. Another example : A teacher at the top of the basic salary schedule who has four children, can supplement his teaching income by $1,000 annually an-nually and still have his youngsters qualify for reduced price meals. You've got to hand it to Uncle Sam. He doesn't have to make ends meet. But he's trying like the dickens to see that others can. However, possibly when it gets to the point that Amy Carter becomes eligible for reduced price lunch at school , we ought to take another look at the program. |