Food
In school I qualified for free lunches since my family was on food stamps. My school was full of mostly students with conservative families who were very open about their political views. They would always talk about how poor people were moochers and always taking handouts. It was always really obvious when someone would be getting a free lunch since the process wasn’t exactly subtle. I would always see people glare and judge, and eventually I stopped going to lunch at all. I remember my grades dropped a bit after that since I’d spend the whole day distracted by hunger. People really don’t seem to understand how food stamps work or any kind of government assistance.
Now that I’m older, it mostly just pains me to see such a widespread lack of sympathy that was and is ever present in politics and is handed down from generation to generation. I don’t think I would have felt so ashamed in school if it weren’t for those students’ parents pushing their political views on them.
Project Canary 