WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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Concerns about the way Monroe County Community Schools collect unpaid lunch debts is prompting some community members to voice their discomfort at tonight’s school board meeting.
The federal school lunch program now requires school districts to formalize in writing the policies they have to collect unpaid lunch debt from students whose account balances are negative. Policy 8500 is MCCSC’s formalization of the practice the schools were already using for some time. The policy establishes in writing that students on full-price lunch plans who run out of money may charge up to the value of three meals after their balance falls to zero. A student who has exceeded three charges and cannot pay either the outstanding balance or for a meal itself, however, will not able to eat the food on their tray. Instead, any food on their tray will be taken off – exchanged for either a peanut butter or cheese sandwich, a half cup of fruit and a pint of milk.
Some community members have called the practice of lunch shaming and believe the experience can be traumatic for children. Sue Wanzer is a member of the MCCSC school board.
“It’s great that the kids can get three lunches in debt – once they have no money in their account they can go ahead and charge three lunches. After that, the fact that they will go through a line, take a meal, and be told that they can’t have that meal, and the unwrapped portion of the meal is taken and thrown away: is the first thing that is really upsetting to me. And we’re doing that for only one reason and that’s to put the kid in the middle between the school and the parents to force the parents to pay.” Wanzer says.
Bloomington Township Trustee Lillian Heneger says the practice may also shame some working parents. Heneger says that stigma surrounding the issue may cause some people to believe that parents who don’t pay their children’s lunch bills are doing a poor job as parents, instead of considering the struggles of low-income parents.
Both Wanzer and Heneger say the issue really lies between the parents and they school systems. Children, they say, shouldn’t be brought into the middle of the situation. Wanzer says she’d like to see the school board try a new policy — one that exempts children from the debt collecting process entirely.
The school board meeting will be held at 6p.m. this evening at MCCSC’s administration center. The Foundation of MCCSC takes financial donations that can be applied to outstanding lunch debts. For more information or to donate, visit MCCSFoundation.org.
