CoalHeart wrote:
Just a thought, as I have no idea how the school administers their free/reduced lunch program, but perhaps the parents DID apply but the student(s) are too embarrassed to stand in line in front of the entire school and say "free lunch" or present some sort of brightly colored "I is poor" voucher.
I've seen a couple of systems.
In elementary school, the kids who got free lunch would have their names on a list, and each kid would have a little roll of tickets, which they would peel one off each day and present it in the lunch line. Reduced lunch I think was on a list that the cafeteria workers had, but I don't remember for sure (I was always on free).
In middle and high school we had PINs for our lunch accounts, so we'd just enter them into the number pad and whether lunch was free or reduced would automatically be in the computer. I'm guessing this is the system that will be most widespread in the future, though I don't know if they'll incorporate it for younger students. It's definitely a lot less embarrassing than standing in front of everyone and having to announce it, though I think your example is rather badly exaggerated.