The "shame of lunch", a punishment for children in the United States – 05/10/2019

By Christine Hauser

A public school district in Rhode Island is testing a way to reduce lunch bills: he told kids that they had unpaid bills that would only have one meal.

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And so the butter and jam sandwich has been incorporated into national debate on the "shame of lunches", in which critics say that the economic well-being of a family This should not be revealed in the din of the school canteen.

The new policy, announced Sunday by the Warwick Public Schools, came into effect on Monday. This means that students with overdue accounts they will receive the cold sandwichInstead of other meals until their debts are canceled or a budget plan is available, they said in the district.

Pay with hunger

The reaction of parents, educators and community members shows that the costs of the school lunch program have become an important forum for activism and economic justice in the United States. Many said that children whose families make a financial effort, they should not pay with hunger or inadequate nutrition while your children are learning.

"This goes beyond Warwick," said Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokesperson for the School Nutrition Association, which represents 58,000 school-based nutrition professionals. "The country's public schools are really fighting this problem."

"They know the importance of school meals for students' academic success," he added. "If the federal government provided funds to serve students free meals, that would not be a problem, school meals are as important as study books."

The term "lunchtime embarrbadment" is the term often used to refer to efforts to publicly hold students accountable for unpaid meal bills.

A 2014 report from the Ministry of Agriculture revealed that about 45% of school districts they kept the food hot, and in return, they delivered a cold sandwich to these students. The staff of the dining room threw food from the trays students whose bills were unpaid or who offered them less desirable alternatives.

The social importance of school meals has grown in importance after the death of Philando Castile, supervisor of a school canteen in Minnesota, who was killed after being shot by a police officer in 2016. A charity organization created on his behalf raised more than $ 100,000 to pay for student lunches and his mother recently donated $ 8,000 to a Minnesota high school.

In Warwick, some feared that the sunflower butter and jelly sandwich would become a mark of shame.

In the days following the announcement of the district's policy, nearly 600 comments were posted on its Facebook wall. Some readers have criticized parents for not prioritizing their household expenses. Others said they received threats by mail saying that they owed only a few cents because some children had put in their trays a canister of milk or another item not covered by meal plans.

"I know that as parents, it's our responsibility, but why fight back with the children if the parents have difficulties," wrote a woman on the district's website.

"We need to see both sides of the problem!", Writes another. "Although it is inappropriate to place a child in an uncomfortable situation due to parental misconduct, there is also the argument that if we provide him or her with free lunches without accountability, many parents will not deliberately worry about paying. "

The district has also defended information that it has refused donations from people outside the school.

Angelica Penta, owner of Gel & # 39; s Kitchen, said that she had prepared jars with donations in her restaurant last year after seeing a report about a girl who had been denied food that she had chosen because her account was overdue.

When Penta tried to write a check for $ 4,000 as a donation to the school district this year, he said, officials dismissed it. "At the end of the day, it's the girl who is suffering," she said in an interview.

On Monday, the district declared in a statement to WJAR, a local station, that it would not disburse the funds either. "This is a position that the school department can not support given the school's mission of treating children equally."

The District Superintendent, the Executive Budget Officer, and the Restoration Program Coordinator did not respond to calls or e-mails sent on Wednesday.

Every day, approximately 30 million students in 100,000 schools and educational institutions in the United States receive meals as part of the federal school canteen program. About 20 million of these meals are free; 8 million are paid in full and 2 million are delivered at a reduced price, according to government figures released by the School Nutrition Association.

Children from typical families earning less than $ 32,630 a year are eligible for free meals, while those whose families have an income of less than $ 46,435 benefit from reduced prices, as the figures show.

About 75% of districts that responded to an badociation survey reported debts for lunches of less than $ 10 to over 865, by the end of the 2017 school year, said his door Pratt-Heavner. The average amount was $ 2,500, an increase of 500% over the average amounts reported in the 2014 and 2016 polls, said the spokesman.

Schools across the country have taken steps to avoid the embarrbadment of lunch, through laws promulgated in the states of Washington, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Oregon. Some schools have used private donations, Pratt-Heavner said.

The growing debt for school meals has become an increasingly urgent problem for the districts towards the end of the school year.

According to the Warwick District statement, Pratt-Heavner did not specify whether the cold sandwich was an entree, which means that it would meet the nutritional standards of the free lunch, in accordance with the rules of the Ministry of Agriculture in force. this subject, if it were accompanied by a fruit, a vegetable and milk.

This difference would matter little for those who are trying to block the initiative.

A GoFundMe campaign said Warwick District owed $ 77,000 for school lunches. To date, the foundation has brought together more than 12,700 people to contribute to its funding.

"Let's get in and pay the kids so no one gets discriminated and upset by the refusal of a hot lunch," wrote organizer, Cait Clement.