It should go without saying but every student deserves to be able to sit down and enjoy a meal at lunchtime, no matter their financial situation at home.
Youtube | WPRI
School Forced To Reverse Decision On Lunch Shaming Policy After Backlash
In the state of Rhode Island, all public schools are required to provide lunches to their students.
Unsplash | Element5 Digital
Of those lunches, 69 percent are served free to students or offered at a reduced price.
The Warwick Public Schools District in Rhode Island has a system in place for feeding its students lunch.
Wikimedia | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Corning-Painted_Post_High_School_Cafeteria_3.jpg
According to Cafe Moms, these schools are responsible for feeding more than 9,000 children, ranging from kindergarten to the 12th grade.
The students' parents are responsible for paying for the lunches their kids are served everyday.
Unsplash | Sharon McCutcheon
However, some parents have been getting a little behind on their payments, leading to students amassing "lunch debts" on their accounts.
In an effort to remedy this, the school district decided a new lunch policy was needed.
Facebook | Warwick Public Schools
In a Facebook post, Warwick Public Schools announced that beginning on May 13, any students owing money for their lunches would be served a standard meal of sunflower butter and jelly sandwiches until the outstanding balance is paid.
So instead of enjoying a hot meal like their classmates, these kids would effectively be singled out and given a cold meal instead.
Understandably, this decision upset a lot of people, especially the students' parents.
"My kids pay for lunch, and I have received notices for owing $0.10, $0.25 in the past,β one parent commented on the post. βItβs really a bad idea to take it out on the kids."
"They are kids" the person added. "They do not pay their bills.β
The school initially defended their decision by revealing the lunch debt that students have racked up.
Unsplash | Pepi Stojanovski
Warwick Public Schools District told USA Today that its owed $77,000 in lunch debt with 1,653 currently owing money for their plans.
Local restaurants tried to offer the district money to help alleviate students' debts.
Unsplash | Sharon McCutcheon
Restaurant owner and mother of one of the district's students Angelica Penta told CBS she offered the district $4,000 but was turned down.
"Basically they said they denied it because they didn't want to choose which student got the donation," she said. "I told them to evenly distribute it."
Now, after the district's new policy went viral and people expressed their outrage, they've reversed their decision.
On Wednesday, Warick Public Schools posted on Facebook that committee members are now recommending that students get their choice of lunch, regardless of their account balance.
If nothing else, the new policy briefly worked as a sort of scare tactic for parents.
Unsplash | Lauren Lulu Taylor
In the same post, the district announced that since posting the original policy announcement, $14,000 was collected from families with outstanding lunch balances.
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