In today’s New York Times, I report on a New Mexico state law, signed yesterday by the governor, which is the first legislation in the country to outlaw “lunch shaming.”
For those unfamiliar with the term, “lunch shaming” refers to practices in the cafeteria that single out children with school meal debt, such as making the child wear a special wrist band, stamping the child’s arm or hand, throwing the child’s meal away in front of peers, or even making a child do chores, like wiping down tables, in exchange for a meal.
I hope you’ll take a moment to read and share the story! And a huge thank you to the school food professionals who responded to my call-out about this topic on TLT’s Facebook page a few weeks ago. Your input was invaluable.
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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017 Bettina Elias Siegel
Christian Cordon-Cano says
Kudos to New Mexico to take the lead on this issue. But there are a lot of states that need to change. And that will take time.
At http://www.SchoolLunchFairy.org we have assembled a small group of teenagers raising money to setup “emergency lunch funds” so that kids that don´t have lunch money can still enjoy a decent school lunch.. We have raised thousands of dollars and have already made donations to a few School Districts. We are working on scaling up our efforts to be able to help schools at a national level.
Please visit our website http://www.SchoolLunchFairy.org
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Thank you for letting people know, Christian!