Recently, FCPS announced that not everybody would get free lunch this year, only the families who earn less than 130 percent of the poverty level qualify for free meals and those with incomes between 130 and 185 percent of the poverty level can qualify for reduced price meals. I think this new policy is completely unfair and nobody will benefit from it.  

Students who have to pay for lunch receive the same quality and variety of foods. They are essentially paying for the same exact lunch they received for free last year, and having students choose between having to pay for the same food options everyday or bringing a packed lunch from home can be conflicting                                                      

Another reason is that there might be a lot of students who do not bring money to school and do not qualify for the free or reduced price lunch, making it an uncomfortable or stressful situation because they cannot afford or are unable to pay for school lunch.

Additionally, the academic performance of some of the students who have to pay for lunch but they don’t bring money to school can be affected because they might be the whole day without eating anything and that can turn into a lack of energy.  

For these reasons, I think that the new free and reduced price lunch policy is unfair and it should be changed to a policy in which everybody can take free lunch and have the opportunity to eat in the school no matter their financial or personal situation.