A doggone disgrace

Let’s file this news story under the arguments in favor of universal free lunch. I found the article particularly interesting because, years ago as a reporter for the Washington (Pa.) Observer-Reporter, I used to cover this school district.

A former cafeteria manager in the Ringgold School District, in western Pennsylvania’s Monongahela Valley, was charged last week with theft and criminal solicitation for allegedly listing his dog on an application for free and reduced-price meals in order to qualify his two children for the program. According to the story by The Associated Press, in addition to falsifying his own application, the man is accused of getting other school district employees to do the same.

Now, Ringgold is a fairly large school district, but there is definitely a small-town atmosphere in the area, and this was the man’s undoing. Apparently, the woman who oversees foodservice for the district—Ringgold outsources its foodservice program to a contract company—recognized the name of the third “child” on the application as that of his canine pet.

After repeatedly trying to get the suspect to stop the fraud, the woman turned the allegedly false applications over to the superintendent’s office, which pursued the case. The school district’s solicitor, Tim Berggren, was quoted by the AP as noting, “If he had put down any other name [except his dog’s], he might never have been caught.”

Of course, as I read the story a host of jokes popped into my head— such as “Talk about treating your pets like children . . .”, and “Does he take the extra meals home in a doggie bag”— but that quote was what really made me view the story in a serious light. I began to wonder, how often does this subterfuge occur?

Among the arguments made for universal free school meals is that the applications are lengthy and convoluted, and that they are difficult to verify. Many deserving families don’t apply for the program because of the former, and this Pennsylvania story is evidence that some undeserving people do apply for the latter reason.

I know Congress only recently reauthorized the Child Nutrition Act, but perhaps its time to take up once again the idea of universal free meals.