Going out on a limb here, but I don't understand how school meals aren't free. I did 3 years as a TA with the lice-infested children of crackheads: they don't come to school, they don't get fed.

Some of those children were violent little animals, but most were trying to get along, like the rest of us. They all need to be fed. If it doesn't happen at home, it needs to happen somewhere.

The situation of these children in inner city schools is desperate. It's beyond desperate. The teachers 'go on sick' with 'stress' every term and there's no fucking wonder, but still, mate, no.

These children break your heart. Break it. The idea that they aren't fed breaks it again. They have no hope, and no chance, at 9, and that is nearly fit to destroy it.