By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com

You can tell from the traffic.  This past June 25^th, President Biden passed the Keep Kids Fed Act (KKFA). Interestingly enough, the move received bi-partisan support (maybe not so interesting, as which politician in his right mind would vote against free food for children?). Essentially, this re-started the food giveaway for children during the 2022 summer months.  The food pickup generally happens from public schools but in a number of areas it is also from other schools and buildings.  And, although many parents do not know this, many, many summer camps across the country are feeding their campers with the free KKFA food.

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TWO OR THREE REPERCUSSIONS

This fact has two repercussions – and possibly three.  The first repercussion is that this means that the parents themselves may not avail themselves of food boxes for their children that are in camp.  This would be considered double-dipping or Gzeilah (see Shulchan Aruch CM 348:2).

It can also be a significant chillul Hashem, as seen in the Tosefta of the tenth chapter of Bava Kammah.  Indeed, the Shach (subparagraph 2), Maharshal, Rambam, SMaG, Tur, Vilna Gaon and Nesivos all hold that it is a biblical prohibition.

THE SECOND REPERCUSSION

The second repercussion, and this is the part that camp owners, may not like is as follows:

The overwhelming majority of parents who have registered their children for camp did so before June 25^th of this year.  It is clear that no one really knew that President Biden was going to sign this law.  Indeed, it kind of came as a shock to most people.  That being the case, we may have a Choshain Mishpat case here – a possible financial tort.

When the parents registered their child for camp the price was a package deal – including the food.  But now, the camps are getting that food for free.  Isn’t there a halachic obligation for the camp owners that serve KKFA food to return that money to the parents?

NO PARALLEL

It is interesting to note that, as far as this author knows, there is no exact parallel to this question in either the Shulchan Aruch or in the commentaries or even the responsa literature.  [As of this deadline, the author has not received an answer from the leading Batei Dinim in Eretz Yisroel.]

Someone had argued that the parents had contracted with the camp owner to feed their child – what difference would there be where the food may come from?  For example, if the camp owner would have begged a wealthy person to have provided free food to his campers, the parents would certainly not be entitled to a partial refund.  So why here would the case be any different?

The counter-argument to this might be that had the camps not served the children the KKFA food – then the parents would have been eligible to receive this food on behalf of their children.

One of the Poskim that this author had posed this question to compared it to a similar case discussed in the commentaries to the Gemorah (Bava Metziah 77a) where an employer hired workers to water a field, and then it rained.  The conclusion is that the poor mazel of the workers had  caused them to lose out and the employer does not have to pay them for the day.  ]There is the caveat that the employer had had to have done his due diligence in looking to see the situation beforehand].

The comparison to our case would be in that it is the luck of the camp owner that caused them to receive the extra food at no cost and that the parents would thus have no financial right to it.

Other Poskim, however, argue with this supposition.  This author presented this question to one of the leading Poskim in New York, Rav Yisroel Harfenes from Williamsburg. Rav Harfenes ruled, “that the camps should return half of the money to the parents as a form of a pshara – a compromise.”  Why split it?  The reason is that the camps needed to expend effort in filling out the paper work, and they do serve it to the children which requires effort and manpower.  This author had also spoken to one of the Roshei Yeshiva in BMG, who also felt that there should be some sort of pshara made to refund some of the funds back to the parents.

THIRD REPERCUSSION

We mentioned that there may be a third halachic repercussion.  What would that be?  The third repercussion would have to do with the Orech Chaim section of Shulchan Aruch – that of brachos.  Assuming that there is a government prohibition, of “double-dipping” then there is an issue of “stolen food.”

[It is also interesting to note that aside from an inquiry to an official, the author is unaware of current literature on double-dipping – however, in the past, the government did discuss the problem.

Many of us are familiar with the verse in Tehillin (10:3) “Botzea beireich ni’aitz Hashem — A thief who blesses blasphemes Hashem.” The Gemorah (Bava Kama 94a and Sanhedrin 6b) uses this verse to describe someone who blesses on stolen food. Parenthetically, the Mishna Brurah (196:3) rules that it is not only stolen food to which this verse can be applied — but also to someone who purposefully eats non-kosher food.

Now, while hopefully it does not happen, if both a parent and the child were aware that their camp was using KKFA food, and wantonly picked up an extra food box for the child in the camp to eat at home, then a blessing would not be recited on such food because of the aforementioned Gemorah.  If, however, the parent had picked up the food previously and then the camp fed the KKFA food to the child but first informed the child that it was, in fact, KKFA food, and the child purposefully eats it anyway then the prohibition would be on blessing upon the camp food.  On the other hand, it could very well be that the government may feel that if the child is hungry he should be eating it since it is called the “Keep Kids Fed Act.”

The author can be reached at [email protected]