BELLVILLE, Ohio–A quick internet search reveals that schools denying lunch to students who lack funds has become a nationwide policy. It has now surfaced as an issue at Clear Fork High School, as one parent pointed out at the December meeting of the Clear Fork Valley Local Schools Board of Education.
In schools across the country, students with a certain charge balance are not allowed to charge lunch, and, in some cases, the lunch is taken away after students have left the lunch line and taken the food to the table. In other cases, trays are taken from students at the cashier and either set aside or thrown in the trash.
Naomi Wade addressed the board Dec. 11. She stated that during the previous school year, this happened to her own daughter who had $1.20 charge balance. “[The lunch worker] pulls the tray out of [my daughter’s] hand and throws it in the trash,” she said. “No offer of anything else, just ‘Sorry about your luck; you don’t get to eat.’”
Wade said she discussed the issue with Clear Fork High School Principal Brian Brown, as well as the superintendent at the time, Dr. Matthew Dill. Wade said that Dill informed her the children that were not allowed to charge lunch were to be given an alternate packed lunch so they didn’t go hungry for the day.
Wade said she assumed that the issue had been resolved, until it resurfaced this year when an epileptic student was denied lunch.
Joie Sellers, mother of the student in question, did not speak at the board meeting, but addressed the issue in a follow-up interview.
Sellers noted that there was a possibility that the stress caused by a skipped meal could trigger a seizure, but added that she didn’t want the focus of the subject to be her child’s epilepsy. “There are other kids with illnesses, but this is more about compassion, in my mind,” she said. “That would be the absolute last resort – to not feed a child.”
The charge balance at the time of the refused lunch was $4.20, noted Sellers.
Superintendent Janice Wyckoff said during the board meeting that high school students were allowed one charge before being denied lunch, and elementary students were allowed five. She then deferred the subject to Food Service Director Kelly Stanford.
“When they have a charge, we tell the student at the time, ‘Look, we’re letting you charge today, make sure you go home and tell your mom or dad,’” Stanford said, noting that a receipt is usually printed showing the amount due.
Sellers said that her child, a senior, was given notification that a charge was on the account. She added that her child had suffered a seizure the previous week and missed a few days of school, and, as most people do when confronted with stress and a flurry of activity, simply forgot.
She added that the lunch tray was set aside when taken from her child, but no opportunity to call home was offered.
Clear Fork High School policy states that students are to be allowed to call home for lunch money, said Wade, but, last year, her daughter was not offered that option. “That didn’t happen. Nobody contacted me; my daughter’s lunch was just taken away. That happened to seven people I knew within a couple of weeks,” she said.
Students, it should be noted, are not allowed to carry cell phones during the school day, according to the student handbook, therefore calling home would require use of a school phone.
Sellers said she knew of another student that had lunch refused due to a charge balance, but in that particular instance, it was because the parent lacked the funds to pay the child’s charges.
“We don’t want students to go hungry,” said Stanford, noting that if parents communicate a lack of family funds, exceptions can be made.
He added that the USDA does not require schools to allow students to charge lunch.
Stanford said that, in discussing the issue with cafeteria employees, it was noted that most times the students come back with money borrowed from a friend, “or the parents showed up.”
Stanford noted that elementary students are indeed offered an alternate lunch once they reach the charge limit. He said the alternate lunch is no longer offered to high school and middle school students because often students would simply request the alternate lunch and then spend their lunch money in the snack/concession area.
“Right now, there are 261 kids in the district that have charges on their accounts. We’re already over $1,000 in uncollected charges, and that’s with our controlled policy,” said Stanford.
“We’re over a thousand dollars in uncollected lunch charges, and we’re going to transfer $123,000 from our general fund to our athletic fund today?” asked Wade. “Do you think a thousand dollars is worth taking food out of a kid’s hand?”
The issue has been addressed in Washington, Massachusetts, Michigan, Iowa, Kentucky, and Utah, as well as other areas. In many of those cases, school boards and school employees apologized for letting students go hungry, and Clear Fork’s lack of apology is an issue for Wade.
Darrell Morrison addressed the board and said he realized the charges are a parent’s responsibility, but communication is key. “I don’t know if anyone is worried about getting extra free lunches; they are just worried about, particularly, just having that notification,” he said. He added that these aren’t habitual charges for most students, but simply forgetting lunch money can result in an embarrassing situation for the student and perhaps a better solution could be found.
The board agreed to discuss the issue further, and has scheduled a meeting with Wade and other interested parents on Jan. 7.
“There should be some other way around it, rather than punishing the child and not letting the child eat,” said Sellers, who said she personally donated $100 to the high school so that this would not happen to another child.
In a follow-up interview, Wyckoff noted that discussion is underway to find an alternative method of keeping charges down. “We’re having some discussion that maybe we need to rearrange our cafeteria,” she said, noting that it may be helpful for the students to know that they had a charge before getting their tray, rather than after.
Wyckoff added that if a student forgot lunch money and asked any staff member, including herself, they would most likely offer assistance. “I’m going to go on the record as saying there’s lots of staff members here that would do that,” she said.
Sellers said that her child, a senior, was given notification that a charge was on the account. She added that her child had suffered a seizure the previous week and missed a few days of school, and, as most people do when confronted with stress and a flurry of activity, simply forgot.
