May 2, 2006 - School Nutrition



SNA Member Talking Points on Unpaid Meal Charges

Recent national news stories have reported on the “school lunch shaming” of students unable to pay for school meals. Some of these stories sensationalized unpaid meal charge policies and implied that “lunch shaming” practices are common nationwide. Given heightened interest in this issue, SNA members should be prepared to outline their local meal charge policies.

Members are encouraged to provide details on how their school meal programs work proactively with parents to enroll students in free and reduced price meals, notify them of low balances and compassionately implement unpaid meal policies. Below are some sample talking points that can assist in responding to media inquiries. Other SNA resources include a 2017 press release on the topic and data from SNA’s 2018 School Nutrition Operations Report.

OPENING

• School nutrition professionals are passionate about ensuring students have access to healthy school meals.

• We never want to see a child go hungry or feel any shame during mealtime.

• We work hard to connect all struggling families with meal assistance, so no student has to go hungry during the school day.

o Overwhelmingly, schools today are working to minimize any stigma associated with free or reduced price meals and remove any barriers for students in need.

KEY POINTS

• School meals are as important to learning as textbooks and pencils – ideally, we would have funding to serve all students free meals so this would not be an issue.

• Federal funds only cover the cost of meals for students enrolled in the free or reduced price meals program.

• School meal programs must charge non-enrolled students to cover food and labor costs.

• Unfortunately, for under-funded school meal programs, unpaid school meal debt can accumulate to create a significant problem that impacts the quality of meals for all students and cuts into education budgets.

o Note: customize this point for your program (eg Our meal charge policies have helped us limit these negative impacts.)

• SNA’s 2018 School Nutrition Operations Report revealed unpaid school meal debt is a widespread problem.

o Three quarters of districts reported having unpaid meal debt.

o 40% report the number of students charging their meals has increased.

• Recognizing this is a national problem, USDA mandated that:

o all school districts implement unpaid meal policies and

o work with families to collect debt incurred from unpaid meals.

o Schools have latitude on what types of policies they implement to account for variables such as school or district size and student demographics.

o All policies must be clearly communicated with parents.

• SNA’s survey found that schools employ multiple proactive tactics to prevent or minimize student meal charges. Most districts offer families: Note: Cite examples in use in your school district

o Personalized help completing free and reduced price applications

o Convenient online payment and monitoring of account balances

o Auto alerts when balances run low

o School staff directly notify parents about low balances and meal charges

• We do everything we can to make sure every student is fed. We: Note: Cite any additional examples from your district:

o Work all year long to enroll families in FRP meals

o Offer payment plans for struggling families

o NEVER shame students/always communicate with parents

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

Why is no charge allowed?

• Again, we wish there was funding for all students to receive free meals. This is a policy no one enjoys enforcing.

• We had to institute a no charge policy to manage the level of unpaid meal debt. We make every effort to:

o inform parents and students of this policy throughout the year,

o connect struggling families with meal assistance and

o keep families informed about their account balance.

But is it ok to trash a lunch or make a child feel shame?

• We work very hard to avoid that from ever occurring.

• Our staff is passionate about making the cafeteria a welcoming place for students and are trained on how to minimize the stigma for students with negative account balances / receiving alternate meals.

o Note: Insert examples from your school, eg – we notify students with negative account balances at the beginning of the school day so they can call their parents before lunch time / staff can discreetly provide them an alternate meal / they can receive brown bag alternate meals before they go into the cafeteria, so the meal looks like it came from home, etc.)

• We constantly work to connect students in need with meal assistance and encourage parents to contact us if they need help. We make it easy for parents to monitor account balances and pay for meals and strive to keep everyone informed of our meal charge policies.

Why do you serve alternate meals?

• School nutrition professionals want all students to receive a complete meal, but when meal charges and debt get out of hand, alternate meals ensure no child actually goes hungry during the day while preserving the financial sustainability of the program.

• School nutrition professionals go to great lengths to make sure alternate meals aren’t shaming for students Insert examples from your school, eg – we notify students with negative account balances before they enter the cafeteria so staff can discreetly provide them an alternate meal / they can receive brown bag alternate meals before they go into the cafeteria, so the meal looks like it came from home, etc.)

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