No more lunch bills

[Sara_Paris 0]

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A cold cheese sandwich, fruit and a milk carton might not seem like much of a meal — but that's what's on the menu for students in New Mexico's largest school district without their lunch money.

 

Faced with mounting unpaid lunch charges in the economic downturn, Albuquerque Public Schools last month instituted a "cheese sandwich policy," serving the alternative meals to children whose parents are supposed to be able to pay for some or all of their regular meals but fail to pick up the tab.

 

Such policies have become a necessity for schools seeking to keep budgets in the black while ensuring children don't go hungry. School districts including those in Chula Vista, Calif.; Hillsborough County, Fla.; and Lynnwood, Wash.; have also taken to serving cheese sandwiches to children with delinquent lunch accounts.

 

Critics argue the cold meals are a form of punishment for children whose parents can't afford to pay. Parents who qualify for free meals are not affected.

 

"We've heard stories from moms coming in saying their child was pulled out of the lunch line and given a cheese sandwich," said Nancy Pope, director of the New Mexico Collaborative to End Hunger. "One woman said her daughter never wants to go back to school."

 

Some Albuquerque parents have tearfully pleaded with school board members to stop singling out their children because they're poor, while others have flooded talk radio shows thanking the district for imposing a policy that commands parental responsibility.

 

Second-grader Danessa Vigil said she will never eat sliced cheese again. She had to eat cheese sandwiches because her mother couldn't afford to give her lunch money while her application for free lunch was being processed.

 

"Every time I eat it, it makes me feel like I want to throw up," the 7-year-old said.

 

Her mother, Darlene Vigil, said there are days she can't spare lunch money for her two daughters.

 

"Some parents don't have even $1 sometimes," the 27-year-old single mother said. "If they do, it's for something else, like milk at home. There are some families that just don't have it and that's the reason they're not paying."

 

Albuquerque Public Schools students receive a cheese sandwich in lieu of a hot meal if they have exceeded a set amount of meals charged to their account, ranging from two at high schools to 10 at elementary schools. The schools' Web site warns: "Once the charging limit is met, students will be offered an alternate meal consisting of a cheese sandwich and a beverage."

 

The School Nutrition Association recently surveyed nutrition directors from 38 states and found more than half of school districts have seen an increase in the number of students charging meals, while 79 percent saw an increase in the number of free lunches served over the last year.

 

In New Mexico, nearly 204,000 low-income students — about three-fifths of public school students — received free or reduced-price lunches at the beginning of the school year, according to the state Public Education Department.

 

"What you are seeing is families struggling and having a really hard time, and school districts are struggling as well," said Crystal FitzSimons of the national Food Research and Action Center.

 

In Albuquerque, unpaid lunch charges hovered around $55,000 in 2006. That jumped to $130,000 at the end of the 2007-08 school year. It was $140,000 through the first five months of this school year.

 

Charges were on pace to reach $300,000 by the end of the year. Mary Swift, director of Albuquerque's food and nutrition services, said her department had no way to absorb that debt as it had in the past.

 

"We can't use any federal lunch program money to pay what they call bad debt. It has to come out of the general budget and of course that takes it from some other department," Swift said.

 

With the new policy, the school district has collected just over $50,000 from parents since the beginning of the year. It also identified 2,000 students eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunches, and more children in the lunch program means more federal dollars for the district.

 

School officials said the policy was under consideration for some time and parents were notified last fall. Families with unpaid charges are reminded with an automated phone call each night and notes are sent home with children once a week.

 

Swift added that the cheese sandwiches — about 80 of the 46,000 meals the district serves daily — can be considered a "courtesy meal," rather than an alternate meal.

 

Some districts, she noted, don't allow children without money to eat anything.

 

Albuquerque Public Schools "has historically gone above and beyond as far as treating children with dignity and respect and trying to do what's best with for the child and I think this is just another example," Swift said.

 

That is just sad. :biggrin:

[vgrbabe 1]

ok then how about you pay the frakking lunch bill or make your kid a sandwich.

[VaBeachGuy 12]

I always took my own lunch, well 99% of the time anyway. On occasion when they were serving Pizza or something special like that I'd convince my mother to give me a dollar to buy my lunch. I don't know how much the school lunches cost now but in the mid to late 70's they were just a dollar. I think milk was ten cents.

 

Other than those "special occasions" my mother would make me (and my 3 brothers and 1 sister) a lunch to take with us (we'd buy the milk... chocolate of course lol).

 

If my memory serves me correctly, unless you were in the free lunch program because your family made under a specific amount of money then the policy was "no money, no lunch".

[Sara_Paris 0]

After grade school I never brought lunch which was really stupid because by the time I got home I was starving.

 

At the school I attended the kid's whos parents were unable to afford to pay for a hot lunch were provided one which of course is ideal. I just think it's sad that among the things our school systems have to worry about providing a hot lunch to kids is now an issue too.

[VaBeachGuy 12]

Come to think of it my old elementary school (William Paca Elementary in Palmer Park Maryland) also started serving breakfasts around 1977 or 1978. Do the schools still do that? I was bussed in so I was never there for breakfast (never ate breakfast anyway lol) but I had friends that lived within walking distance to the school that ate their breakfasts at the school.

[youbroughtheryouRiker 2]

Our school didn't serve breakfast, I can tell you that. Just as well. First hour gym class would be AWFUL that way.

[VaBeachGuy 12]

Our school didn't serve breakfast, I can tell you that. Just as well. First hour gym class would be AWFUL that way.

We didn't have gym in elementary school, we did have P.E. but it was much later in the day.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

In my county they give free breakfast to all the kids not just income based.

 

My relative with the four kids makes four lunches every night. People can feed their kids without going bankrupt

 

Yes, this article makes it sound sad and there are some kids that truly are hungry and that is sad. But too often "I can't afford it" means I'd rather spend my money on toys and let the taxpayer pay for necessities. You have to wonder how many of these parents have cable, cells phones and beer for the weekend but can't "afford" to feed their kids.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

In my day we didn't have a school lunch program. We just went to the Burger King down the street.

[Sara_Paris 0]

Yes, this article makes it sound sad and there are some kids that truly are hungry and that is sad. But too often "I can't afford it" means I'd rather spend my money on toys and let the taxpayer pay for necessities. You have to wonder how many of these parents have cable, cells phones and beer for the weekend but can't "afford" to feed their kids.

 

Great point indeed. I don't have children so I certainly can't speak from experience but I do believe that this country in particular is all about instant gratification and excess and that our priorities get all out of sorts. People tend to spend their money on what they want rather than what they need. There are however parents who do “all the right things” and still don’t have enough money to provide their children with a decent lunch at school.

Edited February 26, 2009 by Sara_Paris

[vgrbabe 1]

come on, it's not like those school lunches were that expensive. when my brother was in school (more recently than I was) it was less than $10 a week

[Sara_Paris 0]

Nah I think probably most people don't find them expensive at all but I'm also sure that there are people who have a rough time with an extra $10 or so a week. For all the people we know of there are those we don’t know of. There are people out there who are trying to make an honest living and who aren’t trying to take advantage of these programs and who still have a difficult time swinging what we think of as "not that expensive."

[vgrbabe 1]

Nah I think probably most people don't find them expensive at all but I'm also sure that there are people who have a rough time with an extra $10 or so a week. For all the people we know of there are those we don’t know of. There are people out there who are trying to make an honest living and who aren’t trying to take advantage of these programs and who still have a difficult time swinging what we think of as "not that expensive."

 

of course...but usualy those aren't the people who are making a fuss about it

[Bethlehem 7]

I agree with all of the comments made but if my tax dollars need to go some where I would prefer these type of programs that try to help kids.

[ddillard 2]

When I was in school in the late 80's and 90's I did receive free lunch until my Senior year (which I did not apply for since I was not at the school for lunch). The school system served both breakfast and lunch. The problem in this article is that the parents do not even appear to have considered that they could take the time to pack their children a lunch if they don't have the money and they don't want them to each cheese sandwiches. I am sorry but any good parent will find a way to provide food for their children, and the ones with low income are not effected by this program, so there is no reason that the parents cannot find a way to feed their children.

 

When I was in school, if you did not receive "free lunch", did not bring your lunch, or didn't have money, then guess what you didn't eat. I believe it is the parents responsibility to make sure their children have food, not the school system.

[VaBeachGuy 12]

I agree. Contrary to a book that came out in the 90's it doesn't "take a village", It takes a family. If the family needs help then help can be provided, but what I got from the article is that it isn't the families that need help due to income level. It's the families that through their income level have been deemed able to afford to feed their kids. They just aren't paying their bills. Probably as was said, because of $90 a month cable TV, $90 a month Cell phones, $50 a month Internet access and other luxuries that people think are necessities.

[Wishfire 2]

I always got free lunches. Didn't really matter to me, since by the time I got to High School I rarely ate lunch anyway.

 

Overall, I think it's a good policy. If the parents can pay, they should pay. If they can't, the kids get free lunch.

 

If, however, the paperwork for free lunches in being processed, the kids should at least be given the benefit of the doubt.

Edited March 3, 2009 by Wishfire