School meals, Meal Shaming and Good Samaritans
People have long instinctively sought to categorize one another, judging whether friend or foe, whether to admit this person into this group or that tribe – it’s an ancient behavior. These differentiations are still operating, particularly with regard to poverty. And no group is more sensitive to finger-pointing poverty than young people.
In the build-up of economic stress caused by Covid-19, many small companies have closed down and put people out of work, causing a rise in family debt. It is a time of threatening insecurity – particularly food insecurity. According to a Bloomberg report, as of early 2021 an estimated 11.8% of US citizens were living below the poverty line in America. [FN1] Children of such impoverished families continue attending public schools, some offering government-sponsored free lunches while others offer state-subsidized lunches.
The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) was established under the National School Lunch Act, signed by President Harry Truman in 1946. It is a federally assisted meal program. [FN2] The central focus of this program is to deliver healthy and nutritious food to children. In 2016, the NSLP program served lunches to 30.4 million children. [FN3] The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) under the USDA is the policy guidance and information center for the NSLP.
The schools offering subsidized lunches have struggled for quite some time with the issue of unpaid meal charges, but when dealing with such large numbers it’s not feasible for schools to simply write off bad debts. The FNS has been reluctant to impose a solution, stopping at issuing guidance to decisionmakers at the School Food Authority (SFA) or the relevant state authorities. In 2017, FNS encouraged policies that allow children to receive the nutrition they need to stay focused during the school day, to minimize identification of children with insufficient funds to pay for school meals, and to maintain the financial integrity of the non-profit school food service account. It supports:
• allowing students to charge all types of available reimbursable meals, or
• to offer alternate meals,
• imposing a limit on charges, or
• not allowing meal charges or alternate meals.
It is mandatory for SFAs to include their particular policies on the collection of delinquent meal charge debt in the schools’ written meal charge policy, and food service management companies “must operate in compliance with meal charge policies established by the state agency or SFA.” However, NFS clearly states that “in establishing policies regarding collection of delinquent debt, state agencies and SFAs should ensure that efforts do not have a negative impact on the children involved but focus primarily on the parents or guardians responsible for providing funds for meal purchases.” [FN4]
What are examples of practices have been identified as meal/lunch shaming?
A student’s meal is taken away and thrown in the garbage in front of his/her peers due to a $4.95 outstanding balance on his meal account.
A student’s breakfast was thrown away at another school due to a 30-cent debt. [FN5]
An Alabama elementary school stamped a child’s arm with the words “I need lunch money” – intended for parents, but the “branding” was seen by all the child’s peers.
A Minnesota high school threatened not to provide caps and gowns at graduation unless school lunch debts were paid off.
School cafeteria staff in New Hampshire have been fired for feeding students despite outstanding lunch debt. [FN6]
Bettina Elias Siegel, author of a book on the feeding of children, [FN7] warns that lunch shaming is hard for young people to shake off: “Children are so aware of differences between kids — whether it’s socioeconomic, popularity, or whatever — that when you engage in any practice expressly meant to set them apart, kids feel that keenly. The stigma is real; it’s a really unfortunate tactic.” [FN8]
Starting in 2017, state legislation in New York, New Mexico, Iowa, Minnesota, California and Texas has been put in place to avoid shaming students; however, in its wake, school meal debt has ballooned. For example, by the end of 2018, more than three dozen districts in the state of Oregon had racked up $1.3 million in negative balances. [FN9] Schools are taking punitive measures resolve these debts — by sending debt collectors after families or threatening to prevent students from graduating. Meanwhile, outrage has sparked solidarity gestures by companies and individuals who are being called “Good Samaritans”. [FN10] The following are examples of such solidarity gestures:
In 2019, the New York-based Greek yogurt company Chobani, donated almost $50,000 to Warwick public schools on Rhode Island and another $85,000 to public schools in the Twin Falls school district. [FN11]
DARCARS Automotive Group, based in Bethesda, Maryland helped alleviate financial burdens by donating $30,000 to the Montgomery County Public School District in 2020. Before this donation, this company had given a $25,000 check to Prince George’s County Public Schools. [FN12]
Ryan Cox, founded a non-profit organization called “Feed the Kids Inc” to wipe out delinquent lunch accounts at schools. Ryan said, “The grand vision is that we could wipe out delinquent accounts at schools, so every kid in America would have a hot lunch every single day they go to school”. [FN13]
Tommy Kelley, an Oklahoma City native, surprised Putnam City Public Schools with a donation of $10,000 to help pay off student lunch debt. "It's just a way during this season to take burdens off the parents who can't afford lunches, you know, it's no fault of their own," Kelley told Fox News. [FN14]
So how should public school lunch financing be tackled?
Resources
1. As of January 13, 2021, the poverty line in the 48 contiguous states and the district of Columbia was set at $21,960 for a three-person family, and $31,040, for a 5-person family, for instance. See https://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty-guidelines. See also Bloomberg article here https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-25/u-s-suffers-sharpest-rise-in-poverty-rate-in-more-than-50-years
2. The program covers public and nonprofit private schools as well as residential child care institutions; see https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp
3. See https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp/nslp-fact-sheet
4. See EO Guidance Document #FNS-GD-2016-0046 policy memo SP 47-2016 ; « Unpaid Meal Charges: Clarification on Collection of Delinquent Meal Payments” para 6 at https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/unpaid-meal-charges-clarification-collection-delinquent-meal-payments
5. https://soeonline.american.edu/blog/what-is-lunch-shaming
6. See https://www.eater.com/2019/5/22/18634237/lunch-shaming-students-meal-debt-american-schools
7. Siegel, Bettina Elias (2019), “Kid Food: The Challenge of Feeding Children in a Highly Processed World”; Oxford University Press, New York.
8. See https://www.eater.com/2019/5/22/18634237/lunch-shaming-students-meal-debt-american-schools
9. http://www.osba.org/News-Center/Announcements/2019-02-11_LunchBills.aspx
10. A biblical reference honoring people who perceive a need for help of another and act on it without self-interest or thought of reward, and where no prejudice makes the helper think twice.
11. See https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/rhode-island/2019/05/10/yogurt-company-chobani-donates-nearly-help-pay-off-rhode-island-school-district-student-lunch-debt/A4j38bZrcWImTQ20pJIl6O/story.html; and https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/chobani-85k-donation-lunch-debt-idaho/
13. Ryan Cox can be followed on Twitter for more news about the Feed the Kids Inc. Initiative.
14. Kelley has founded Someday Soon Foundation, a 501(c) (3) organization with an IRS NTEE classification code of K30: Food Service, Free Food Distribution.