There are a lot of things people disagree on, from politics and religion, to how Game of Thrones should have ended, but there are certain things that we all can agree on.
One of those things is the importance of ensuring children don’t go hungry.
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Which is why we’ve been seeing the issue of school lunch debt in the news so often recently.
For example, there was the story of Warwick Public Schools in Rhode Island, which upon facing $77,000 in unpaid lunch debt, began serving only cold sunbutter and jelly sandwiches to kids with outstanding balances.
After backlash, the Chobani yogurt company stepped in with a donation covering two-thirds of the debt.
Then there’s the story of Bonnie Kimball, a lunchroom server who lost her job after giving a student an $8 meal with only an IOU.
The school accused her of theft and of violating regulations.
The stories keep on adding up, much like the debt.
According to the School Nutrition Association, 75% of school districts in the country had unpaid lunch debts by the end of the 2016-2017 school year, ranging from single digit amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Since the USDA prohibits schools from using federal funds to pay the outstanding debt, anything they can’t collect from families must come from the general budget.
It’ll take a lot of work to solve the larger issues, but people are already finding ways to handle “lunch shaming.”
The term has come about to describe the steps some schools take to reprimand children with unpaid debt. It includes stamps on the hand or even extra chores.
Many places have banned these practices, since it is singling out the child for something they have no control over.
Another option schools have is to only provide cold, inexpensive lunches to those kids.
Due to the financial constraints unpaid debt causes for the school, this makes sense, but a cold sandwich still makes the child feel singled out and isn’t particularly filling.
Which is what Shawn Bumgardner discovered was happening at his daughter’s middle school.
When he heard that there was a student sharing half their lunch so that another wouldn’t starve, he felt like he had to help out.
He contacted the school and paid off the debt for everyone in need.
Bumgardner told Inside Edition that he hoped to set an example.
“That one random act of kindness can make someone else give a random act of kindness.”
And he did.
Since going public with his action, both the Cudahy Elementary School and High School also received anonymous donations, clearing their accounts.
Hopefully, a longterm solution is found for the problem of lunch debt, but for now, we just need to keep paying it forward.
h/t: Inside Edition
