The BBR staff consumed adult beverages during a Zoom virtual happy hour last evening.  While doing so it kicked around potential topics for this morning’s article.

One drink led to another.  We had almost decided that it was time to lower the boom on Zoom.  Our business section editor was going to wax eloquently about how there “are people who work, and there are people who get things done.”  She was going to suggest that you get out of the virtual meeting place (isn’t it just a water cooler right in the middle of Al Gore’s internet anyway?) and spend some time strategizing, writing a to-do list, sending a handwritten note to your favorite customer, etc.

Then someone extolled the virtues of it and asked: ” yes, but where would our educational system be without it right now?”  Everyone took a stab. “Good point.”  “Hmm.”  “Let me Google search ‘education news, Zoom, and success.'”

What popped up?  Hillsborough County Florida popped up.  Except it wasn’t about success.  It was about excess.  The county, ever concerned about nutritious meals for its “young uns” doles out “free lunches” for its students.  Who knew that in home schooling didn’t also mean in-home meals?   Drive your car to the drive-through location, wait in line, get handed a bag of food.  It sounds a lot like McDonald’s, except for the ” drive to the first window please” for payment.

“We want to make sure that children actually get the nutrition they need to be successful during the e-learning process,” said Hillsborough Schools Superintendent Addison Davis.

“We had some individuals who made undesired behaviors last week, but we stand ready with new organizational controls you know hats off to operations and the IT department for helping us with this process,” said Hillsborough Schools Superintendent Addison Davis.  Good thing Mr. Davis is a superintendent and not an English teacher during this e-learning process, or any learning process for that matter.

District officials found parents selling the food online and parents who had the food stockpiled in their cars.  Did anyone go to jail?  We digress.

Parents now have to provide their child’s name and school ID number before they can pick up food, and they are not allowed to pick up more than once.  Those are smart thinking additions to the program.  Would it be cheaper to just give them some money?  It would be more efficient, too.  Or, what if the parents actually fed their kids?

So let’s review in an e-learned sort of way.  The government takes in tax dollars.  They use some of it to pay teachers to do their job.  They also buy lunches with it for kids.  They give lunch away.  Parents steal “free lunches.”  Parents sell the food online.  That last step is actually e-commerce.

Maybe there is no such thing as a free lunch, especially if you buy one online.