While Congress and the First Lady can be credited with some improvements in school lunches, nothing has been done to provide a free lunch for home schooled and virtual academy students. Are homeschooled children less important to Congress than their public school counterparts? Laws are on the books in most states that guarantee homeschooled kids access to sports and other public school services.

What about lunch?

Readers who do not homeschool may be surprised to know that lunch is one of the vexations of homeschooling moms. About the time breakfast is consumed and the first round of studies is completed, it’s lunch time. To stop everything and serve up food is a time-consuming task.

Providing nourishment for offspring is the most fundamental task of a parent.

There were many days that my mom gave me a half sandwich – a slice of white bread with bacon or brown sugar and butter. We were a middle class family that never wanted for food, a family led by my mother who has a Master’s Degree from the University of Tennessee in home management.

I was an insanely picky eater. The First Lady herself could have visited and offered me a serving of broccoli – I would have refused it. Despite my inferior lunch, I maintained high marks on my grades and in my own time figured out that eating a balanced diet was superior to subsisting on flour, sugar, and fat.

And so, allow me to stop and pay homage to my mother for ensuring that I had enough sustenance. But when I became an adult I decided my kids would go to public schools.  The decision was partly motivated by the fact I didn’t have the resources to manage a well-rounded education at home. I also considered the difficulty with feeding my kids at home.

Congress has moved heaven and earth to guarantee that not one child has to sustain life on a half sandwich. State inspectors visit preschools to ensure that every child is served a USDA-approved lunch. Politicians fabricate heart-rending tales about little children forced to take the free school lunch because they have no loving parent to pack a lunch. Since the promise of a healthy life is something the U.S. government seeks, we should ask homeschoolers get the same.

Contact the USDA to ask them for a change to their program: CLICK HERE