Unpaid Lunch Bills Spell Financial Burden For Nation's Schools

With the recession bearing down on American families, the rates of unpaid school lunch bills have skyrocketed across the country.

In public school cafeterias, each student is charged for their daily lunch based on their family's income.

This ranking means some students get free lunches, others pay a reduced price and another group pays full price. In theory, the plan should mean that each family can afford what they are billed for the school meals their children are given.

In recent years, with times getting tougher, fewer families are willing or able to pay up.

Instead of letting children go hungry when their parents haven't sent the money, schools look for ways to keep students fed while adding as little as possible to school debt.

Some schools started handing out cheese sandwiches as a low-cost way to offer some meal to kids with outstanding bills.

According to the AP,

Faced with mounting unpaid lunch charges in the economic downturn, Albuquerque Public Schools[...]instituted a "cheese sandwich policy," serving the alternative meals to children whose parents fail to pick up their lunch 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 lunch debtors.

Now, picking up the tab for unpaid bills is becoming an even greater financial burden on schools, meaning that they face funds being docked from general budgets.

In New York City, the nation's largest school system, outstanding school lunch bills have cost millions.

The New York Times reports,

The city used to pick up the unpaid tabs. Since 2004, it has absorbed at least $42 million in unpaid lunch fees.

But that is a luxury it can no longer afford, according to the Department of Education, which has weathered several rounds of budget cuts, with more still to come. So it has been telling principals to collect overdue lunch money or risk having it docked from their school budgets.

Across the nation, school officials are scrambling to get families to pay up.

In Georgia, the Columbia County school district is facing similar straights. Although a much smaller system than New York City, delinquent meal bills are still setting local schools back at least $25,000 for this school year alone, according to WRDW News. These numbers mean less funds are available for academic items.

WRDW News reports,

Every unpaid lunch is less money for new computers, smart boards, and TV's for learning.

Comments

[El Chingaso]

05:02 AM on 02/15/2011

Yep, good old "sense of entitlement" is running amok here. Breeders do so without any thought as to the financial consequences of their actions. I do not -- repeat, "do not" -- have any obligation as a taxpayer to feed kids in the public education system. Students are in school to learn and momma and daddy need to feed the little brats, even if it means cancelling the cell phone or cable bill. We have become a nation of warped principals, or lack there of...

[steve12]

02:03 AM on 02/15/2011

What I don't understand is why lunches are not paid for at the time that they are consumed. Also, whatever happened to kids bringing in their own lunch. Don't get me wrong, I don't think any school should allow any child to go hungry, but I don't understand why families can't make lunch for their kids, even if it's a peanut butter sandwich with an apple.

[sk8queen]

06:49 PM on 03/03/2011

Makiing a lunch for the child would be nice but people complain they don't have tome or the children are embarassed. I would be embarassed for my child to be eating a free cheese sandwich. I bet if th parents didn't fill their grocery cars full of boxed foos and microwave junk, they'd have enoughleft to buy breat, meat, veggies and fruits and condiments for a simple lunch. These same people who don't pay for lunch often have a freezer full of pizza pockets and popsicles but no real foods...

[GlennWatson]

07:19 PM on 02/13/2011

I remember years ago in government class we were talking about poverty. The kids asked how poverty was defined. I said the government set a certain income level and if a family fell below that they received government benefits like free lunch or food stamps.

Several student were offended that I implied they were poor. They had volunteered the information that they were on free lunch, but were outraged anyone would refer to them as poverty stricken or poor.

I asked why they thought the government was giving them food. They denied the government was giving them food since it had already been purchased and would go to waste if they did not eat it.

Most of the kids got it but some simply refused, not unlike some people on this board.

[Tristan Traylor]

04:35 PM on 02/13/2011

Another wonderful example of how woefully bad government is at managing public education - or anything else - for that matter.

The "cheese sandwich solution". I love it...

Large public entities lack the real ability to manage the bottom line balancing of supply and demand that the free market does so easily.

Here is a brilliant prophecy - Public Education costs are going to continue to spiral out of control with less and less student achievement to show for it.

As for the lunches, we've been talking about improving school lunches for years. We also admit that school food is far too processed AND laced with preservatives. Now, add to this that schools are having difficulty paying for the junk they are already serving.

I know the answer! MORE MONEY!!!

or privatizing public schools...

This question is SOOO COMPLICATED.

[themainpoint]

09:24 AM on 02/13/2011

Schools might also want to consider starting their own gardens to supplement their lunch---with the students doing the labor and even getting credit for that. Rooftops will do if they don't have extra land.

[chavezcoach]

08:51 PM on 02/12/2011

At my school 92% of the students qualify for free lunch. The shocking reality is that about only 75% of them eat lunch. The others are permitted to bypass the line and sit quietly at a table until dismissed for recess. I'm thinking that the cafeterias are not that much in the red at my school.

[dporterdvd]

02:48 AM on 02/12/2011

A bowl of oatmeal would be cheaper than a cheese sandwich, more nutritious and not as embarrassing for the kids because McDonalds is serving oatmeal now. I hope the middle class hasn't become so poor (or the GOP so mean) that we can't even afford to feed our neediest kids a bowl of oatmeal.

[am10]

11:59 AM on 02/14/2011

I wish we'd educate those who need it on proper and affordable nutrition. $3.00 at Walmart can give you a canister of oatmeal that gives at least two weeks of breakfast…which as you said is healthy.

[sk8queen]

06:54 PM on 03/03/2011

Sooo true but kids don't like/won't eat simple foods unless they're jazzed up with pretty colors and are "cool" regardless of whether its good for them or nourishing. One thing my mom said to us as we ate a simple bowl of beans with cornbread, "food is for nourishment not whether you necessarily like it." We couldn't argue since we were full and happy when finished with our unglamorous bowl of beans...

[blogisti]

07:46 PM on 02/11/2011

Where are the GOP? They should be going to schools and telling the kids there's no free lunch! Then going back and canceling the programs. Not very consistent are they?

[Susie Nicholas Schwab]

11:14 PM on 02/10/2011

It is a sad day when a child gets the "cheese" sandwich. I wish that their parents had to be the ones to hand it to them. Kids just sit with the sack in front of them and refuse to eat it, claiming that they aren't hungry, anyway. I can only imagine how they feel knowing that there are other kids sitting near them that have parents that bring in their favorite fast foods.

[John Camp]

06:12 PM on 02/13/2011

No one has ever died from a cheese sandwich or embarrassment. That there are consequences for not paying bills is not the worst lesson a kid could learn. An enormous percentage of the world's population would be pretty happy if their child got a free cheese sandwich by the way.

[mady]

09:47 PM on 02/09/2011

A few years ago I read about a large district in Florida that found they were spending more money monitoring the free lunch program than it would cost to just give everyone a free lunch.

[cla65]

04:31 PM on 02/09/2011

Instead of those free burgers, cookies and milk, the schools are going to have to cut the kiddies back to what I had to eat growing up in my cafeteria. Peanut butter and sometimes jelly sandwich, an apple and a glass of water. Oh yeah on Christmas they gave us a sugar cookie. I'm 6'5 and weigh 210 and never felt better. Someone, someday has to be a grownup and say hey people, we're freakin broke! Let's act like adults and make some changes here before nobody has any money for any food! Nah, that would actually make some kind of common sense. Not a lot of that floating around these days since certain folks are in charge.

[Tristan Traylor]

04:38 PM on 02/13/2011

Good stuff.

[GlennWatson]

11:50 AM on 02/09/2011

How many of these kids on free or reduced lunch also have cell pones in their pockets and cable TV at home?

Does it make any differance?

[Cutiepieblue]

01:26 PM on 02/09/2011

Are you saying that people are abusing the system? Maybe some do. Most of the kids that I knew on free lunches lived in poverty.

[GlennWatson]

01:52 PM on 02/09/2011

Read the question carefully: How many have cell phones and cable TV?

[Lovelyblue]

01:33 PM on 02/09/2011

Wow really do you think everyone is out to just abuse the system.

[GlennWatson]

08:28 PM on 02/09/2011

I'm just askin.

[Tristan Traylor]

04:40 PM on 02/13/2011

Our educational system is so bloated and irresponsive to true demand that it will never have a chance of figuring out how to pay for all the things that it is trying to do.

Privatize.

Pri - va - tize.

[Hank26]

11:29 AM on 02/09/2011

I know a lot of impoverished families in my small town. What's sad is so many of them are clueless as to how to budget and make appropriate and wise financial decisions. They make sure they have enough money for beer, for cable TV, for US magazine, for cigarettes, drugs, etc. but they don't consider setting aside money for their healthcare needs or their children's school lunches a necessity or priority. Is it lacking compassion or inhumane of us to expect or even demand that they reprioritize their life's choices so as not to burden the rest of us with their financial missteps?

[sj user1]

10:33 AM on 02/09/2011

Why do Republicans stop caring about children once they are born? If they don't want the government to pay for kids whose parents can't take care of them, I would think they would be for abortion and not against it.

[silvercreeklady]

10:38 AM on 02/09/2011

How about adoption?..for those hwo have the funds to take care of them.

[farginbastidge]

10:24 PM on 02/10/2011

So, the poor should have kids, then give them to the rich--so the government won't have to subsidize their lunches?

[Graceless]

12:04 AM on 02/11/2011

Ah yes. All those empty orphanages with people lined up waiting for the next batch to come in.

[Tristan Traylor]

04:46 PM on 02/13/2011

I'm actually for sterilization - if a child has been conceived then it has the right to live.

What exact responsibility do I have to send someone my money when they continue to have child after child and seem completely clueless how to manage their money or their children.

I AM FINANCING and therefor, EMPOWERING their ridiculous and irresponsible behavior.

Government statistics indicate that the birth rate among the population on government assistance is higher than the rest of the population.

That is a problem.

AND, if this wasn't the case and the number of people living in poverty was fixed or decreasing, I would not mind helping those people out as much.

[Loveworks]

10:12 AM on 02/09/2011

This is a travesty however all the whining about feeling sorry for those children who are recognized by their classmates as free/reduced lunch has gone too far. This country grew and prospered because those with much less knew they needed to work hard to succeed, knew they had very little. It's hard when students assume they are equal to the wealthy class...they emulate the wealthy class’s lack of effort and its detrimental to their success.