A hat tip to Fed Up With Lunch for alerting me to a really sweet school food story that took place right in my own backyard.
Yesterday, Houston news station KPRC reported that Kenny Thompson, a Houston-area mentor and tutor at Valley Oaks Elementary School, reached into his own pocket and spent $465 to zero out the negative school meal accounts of more than 60 children at the school. Thompson was reportedly inspired to act after learning of the school in Utah which last week whipped up a firestorm of criticism when it threw away the lunches of dozens of students who had delinquent meal accounts. (On a related note, as I shared on TLT’s Facebook page, two of the Utah school’s employees have been put on paid leave pending investigation of the incident.)
From the KPRC report:
“These are elementary school kids. They don’t need to be worried about finances,” said Thompson. “They need to be worried about what grade they got in spelling.”
Thompson says many kids he knows with negative accounts forgo the lunch line altogether to avoid embarrassment. But that’s bad for education as physicians have linked classroom performance with proper nutrition. Thompson believes he made a difference when he made the decision to help those students.
“When I left the building knowing that they were getting fed, they didn’t have that stress,” said Thompson. “The best money I ever spent.”
But as heartwarming as the Thompson’s act of kindness may be, it is of course not a long-term solution to the very real problem of unpaid school meal accounts.
School districts long struggled with the issue of feeding children whose parents couldn’t or wouldn’t pay, and Diane Pratt-Heavener, spokesperson for the School Nutrition Association, recently asserted on Take Part that the improved meal standards mandated by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act have only worsened the problem. She noted that meal prices have gone up to cover the cost of healthier food, creating a larger class of students who don’t qualify for free or reduced price lunch but also can’t afford to pay the full price for school meals. And the widespread implementation of swipe cards has apparently also contributed to the problem, in that parents and students sometimes treat them like credit cards, rather than debit cards. They also allow students to easily spend money on a la carte foods (often without their parents’ knowledge) and deplete the balance remaining for school meals.
I’ve been following with interest a conversation on this blog’s Facebook page among school food professionals discussing how they handle unpaid meal balances. And if you’re a layperson like me, I also recommend taking a look at the slides for this 2012 School Nutrition Association presentation by two food service directors, just to get a taste of the struggles districts face in handling this delicate issue and the costs they incur both in lost meal charges in trying to collect on delinquent accounts.
If you’re a school food professional, I’d love your thoughts on how your district handles this problem and what you think the long-term solution, if any, might be.
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Martha says
At my district the students must have a signed permission note that allows them to “charge” ala carte items, this is done at the beginning of each school year. IF they “owe” money on their accounts they can not “purchase” a la carte items (no charging and no cash) they are encouraged to place the cash on their account to “pay off” their debt, they often choose not to do that and keep their money. Students may charge meals not snacks if they have charges, we make automated phone calls home, send letters and have a policy that if money is owed at the end of their senior year, it must be paid and “so far” that has worked to get bills paid. Also when bills get way out of hand we send a letter saying that students are no longer allowed to receive a meal unless they have cash to pay for it, they may no longer add to the charges that they have accrued. It’s amazing to me that parents can send children to school day after day and not provide a lunch or the money to pay for one, and then wonder why we are being “harsh” by not allowing them to charge. Students are NEVER denied a meal, it’s not their “fault”….
Heather says
My son’s school has little problem with unpaid balances as less than 5% of students would pay full price for meals (and why kids eating all three meals at school is not uncommon). Still they struggle with what to do about negative balances. There are local churches that regularly send money to pay whatever needs the students have when they can. The school also sends applications for free/reduced lunches when they mail you a notice that your account is in the negative. The school district uses a similar system as others to process electronic payments and offers automactic pay if your child’s balance dips below a certain amount. But such a system assumes a level of financial ability that simply doesn’t apply to most of my son’s classmates. Instead the school has had to do everything within its power to reduce the cost of healthy meals. Not only do they utilize farm to school grants but even maximize that by getting the produce deemed not pretty enough for sale to more affluent schools and stores. A la carte options are few and far between (but I do like what Martha mentioned). I don’t think a one size fits all solution exists but I also don’t think we can come up with anything useful until we decide as a society that education and child nutrition are truly national priorities. Given the incredible political divide I just don’t see that decision being given more than lip service any time soon.
Diane Pratt-Heavner, School Nutrition Association says
Yes – many school districts have raised meal prices to offset the increased cost of preparing school meals that meet new nutrition standards. However, school meal prices have also increased because of the Paid Meal Equity provision of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, and news reports (http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865561136/Utah-school-lunches-getting-healthier-but-pricier.html?pg=all) indicate that both of these issues were at play in Salt Lake City School District’s decision to raise prices.
As you pointed out in your Sept 20, 2011 post (https://thelunchtray.com/school-lunch-prices-on-the-rise-nationwide/), Paid Meal Equity forced many school districts to raise prices on families regardless of the school meal program’s financial solvency. You mentioned the concern that Paid Meal Equity could “drive more parents to simply fail to pay for the lunches their children take.”
The School Nutrition Association is calling on Congress and USDA (http://www.schoolnutrition.org/Blog2.aspx?id=19811&blogid=564) to ease the Paid Meal Equity provision, and to provide school districts with guidance on managing unpaid meal charges. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act required USDA to examine and report on this problem.
Maggie says
I work in K-6. The only ala carte we sell is a carton of milk for meals brought from home or an extra carton with a school meal.
We let children “charge” forever. I think parents are fully aware that is the case. I wish I was free to say more but, the total debt in the building I work at is almost 3 times the amount covered by the gentleman in the article mentioned. There are 10 k-6 buildings. It is a problem.
Maybe slightly off the topic, but maybe not. I often wonder what exactly people expect school meals to “be”. Are we a charity? Are we a business?
Stephanie says
In Houston ISD our Foodservices passes the deficit to the school. The money comes out of the schools budget that are already bone dry!
One of the major problems is the the FNFR lunch program is not retroactive. So, if I sign up for free lunch and it doesn’t get approved for a certain amount of time… Well, my kid still has to eat! So, my child gets school lunch and accrues a balance that I cannot pay.
Terrible cycle!
mike says
Why dont we just make school lunches a part of the school experience. Raise the money through taxes and get on with it. It is a sad day when we have to have a discussion about this without a solution.