Why cook for your kids when the state will do it?

To reduce stigma, or so it’s said, Maryland will serve free school breakfast, lunch, and summer meals to more kids whether they’re poor or not [Rebecca Lessner/Maryland Reporter, earlier] Gov. Hogan has signed the Hunger Free Schools Act, a bill sponsored by Sen. Rich Madaleno (D-Kensington) that seemed to enjoy near-universal support in Annapolis; leveraging more federal money may have had something to do with that. Pushing for the measure was an outfit called Maryland Hunger Solutions.

I can’t go along with blogger Tom Coale of HoCo Rising, who seems to see it as a positive indicator for a county to have moved more of its less affluent families away from home meals with family and into government feeding options. Under his analysis, counties like Howard and Frederick with low breakfast participation rates come off as laggards, drawing attention away from the possibility that they should actually be counted as successes: their less affluent families, for what may turn out to be admirable reasons, succeed better at feeding their kids at home.