A School District Tried To Limit Lunch Options For Struggling Students — Then The Internet Stepped In

By: Lauren Rearick


A Rhode Island school district reported that it is no longer moving forward with a policy that people around the nation called “lunch shaming.”


On Sunday, May 5, Warwick Public Schools in Warwick, Rhode Island announced on Facebook that sunflower seed butter and jelly sandwiches could be the only meal alternative for students with an outstanding balance on their school lunch account, CNN reports. The policy, which was set to go into effect on May 13, mentioned that if a student owed cash on their lunch account, the sandwich could be “given because the meal choice up until the balance owed is paid in full or a payment plan is set up by means of the food service office.”


The announcement was met with a wave of backlash from parents and other concerned social media users. Some called it a “sick punishment” to penalize children if a parent was unable to issue cash for lunch; another person questioned questioned, “why take it out on kids.”


In response, a woman named Cait Clement began GoFundMe to raise enough cash to pay off the school district’s estimated $77,000 in lunch debt; at publish time, people had raised $50,524. (According to a Facebook post made by the district, as of May 3, 1,653 students in the district had an outstanding lunch balance. Balances reportedly ranged from $1.00 to $500.) Angelica Penta, a local firm owner, told CNN that she had attempted to help pay off Warwick school lunch accounts in March 2018, and accused the district of turning down her donations. Penta had collected and donated $4,000 to the district in January 2018. “I attempted to give extra cash to Warwick Schools, although they denied the check," she said.


For its part, the school district claimed they denied the donation because they did not aspire to pick which children’s accounts could be written off; in a statement offered to WJAR, the school maintained that it could be up Penta to determine how to offer the funds if she wanted to donate them.


after the continued social media scrutiny, Chairwoman of the Warwick School Committee Karen Bachus announced that the Warwick School Committee Policy Subcommittee had met to review the recommended change in lunch policy. In response, the policy subcommittee “is recommending that the Warwick School Committee let the students their choice of lunch without consideration of their account status.”


The school district also mentioned it’s working with an attorney to “accept donations in compliance with the law and that the donations are applied in an equitable manner.”


Viral social media may have eventually contributed to the school’s reversal of their decision, however this served as another stark reminder of the inequalities that students continue to face. Unpaid school lunch balances are an ongoing, nationwide issue.


In a 2018 report from the School Nutrition Association, it was announced that nearly 75% of schools across the United States had unpaid student meal debt at the conclusion of the 2016 - 2017 school year. The Rhode Island Department of Education reports that 69% of the state’s school lunches are served free to students or at a reduced cost. As CNN explains, districts during the state must allocate students with meals that meet nationwide dietary standards. Students who meet certain financial requirements are eligible for a complimentary or reduced lunch. Thirty-four percent of students enrolled at Warwick Public Schools qualify for the reduced or free lunch program.


However school lunch debt remains a nationwide distribute, corporations and lawmakers are working to change that. Social media has used crowdfunding to pay off outstanding balances, and in 2017, a bill was introduced that would have stopped schools from publicly singling out students who required lunch assistance. The bill was not passed. And a report by the Congressional Financial range Office released in December 2018 planned that an alternative for reducing the federal deficit could contribute cutting funding to childhood nutrition programs. It isn't however clear what action, if any, the government would take on such an option.