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It took me a couple of years to notice how odd "school lunch debt" (and the stories about students facing consequences for unpaid debts) was. Who is extending students school lunch credit? Who is issuing the school lunch loans? Do students have to go through an application process that checks their creditworthiness?
Back when I was a kid, school lunches were free for anyone willing to fill out a form. Two different people at my high school said they got free lunches due to their parents falsely claiming financial stress.
That Aramark minimum-viable-product-food only fit for prisoners and public school students is free for the end user. Enjoy your free tiny rock-hard apple, slice of """pizza""" and tiny carton of fat free milk. My wife's description of school food in a communist country is so much better than what I recall growing up in privileged middle-class American suburban public schools.
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No, the students are over drafting their school lunch accounts, usually by buying candy and Gatorade and the like, because the cafeteria knows they’ll more than likely get it from the parents(the ones who won’t pay are like 90% on free and reduced lunch).
Back before you could use lunch accounts like that, I used to loan shark other kids at the lunch table offering dollars for vending machines at flat 25¢ per day interest rates (within a class/social circle that virtually guaranteed repayment out of allowances). The market was always there to be exploited.
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