WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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After community outcry, the Monroe County Community School Corporation put an end to so-called ‘lunch shaming,’ Brown County Schools are following suit.
Lunch-shaming — the practice of taking away a student’s lunch and replacing it with a cheaper “school approved” lunch, once they had exceeded their lunch account balance, was discontinued by MCCSC last month.
MCCSC Spokesperson Andrew Clampit said all students now receive the lunch they’ve picked out regardless of their lunch account balance.
Brown County schools are now following MCCSC’s lead.
Community outcry over lunch shaming reached its peak last month after MCCSC proposed a new food policy for student lunches aimed at curbing a fiscal deficit in that area.
MCCSC administrators were forced to repeal the alternative lunch procedure. Clampitt says families who run out of lunch money will now be notified by email and phone that their accounts are delinquent.
Clampit says the MCCSC’s food program is doing well, but there is a deficit of a million dollars in the corporation’s general fund. He adds that MCCSC relies on donations from the Foundation for Monroe County Community Schools, a non-profit, to make up for the deficit in the general fund.
