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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headli…on/6280148.html
No lunch money means a cold cheese sandwich
By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press
Feb. 25, 2009, 8:34AM
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A cold cheese sandwich, fruit and a milk carton might not seem like much of a meal — but that’s what’s on the menu for students in New Mexico’s largest school district without their lunch money.
Faced with mounting unpaid lunch charges in the economic downturn, Albuquerque Public Schools last month instituted a “cheese sandwich policy,” serving the alternative meals to children whose parents are supposed to be able to pay for some or all of their regular meals but fail to pick up the tab.
Such policies have become a necessity for schools seeking to keep budgets in the black while ensuring children don’t go hungry. School districts including those in Chula Vista, Calif.; Hillsborough County, Fla.; and Lynnwood, Wash.; have also taken to serving cheese sandwiches to children with delinquent lunch accounts.
Critics argue the cold meals are a form of punishment for children whose parents can’t afford to pay. Parents who qualify for free meals are not affected.
“We’ve heard stories from moms coming in saying their child was pulled out of the lunch line and given a cheese sandwich,” said Nancy Pope, director of the New Mexico Collaborative to End Hunger. “One woman said her daughter never wants to go back to school.”
Some Albuquerque parents have tearfully pleaded with school board members to stop singling out their children because they’re poor, while others have flooded talk radio shows thanking the district for imposing a policy that commands parental responsibility.
Second-grader Danessa Vigil said she will never eat sliced cheese again. She had to eat cheese sandwiches because her mother couldn’t afford to give her lunch money while her application for free lunch was being processed.
“Every time I eat it, it makes me feel like I want to throw up,” the 7-year-old said.
Her mother, Darlene Vigil, said there are days she can’t spare lunch money for her two daughters.
“Some parents don’t have even $1 sometimes,” the 27-year-old single mother said. “If they do, it’s for something else, like milk at home. There are some families that just don’t have it and that’s the reason they’re not paying.”
Albuquerque Public Schools students receive a cheese sandwich in lieu of a hot meal if they have exceeded a set amount of meals charged to their account, ranging from two at high schools to 10 at elementary schools. The schools’ Web site warns: “Once the charging limit is met, students will be offered an alternate meal consisting of a cheese sandwich and a beverage.”
The School Nutrition Association recently surveyed nutrition directors from 38 states and found more than half of school districts have seen an increase in the number of students charging meals, while 79 percent saw an increase in the number of free lunches served over the last year.
In New Mexico, nearly 204,000 low-income students — about three-fifths of public school students — received free or reduced-price lunches at the beginning of the school year, according to the state Public Education Department.
“What you are seeing is families struggling and having a really hard time, and school districts are struggling as well,” said Crystal FitzSimons of the national Food Research and Action Center.
In Albuquerque, unpaid lunch charges hovered around $55,000 in 2006. That jumped to $130,000 at the end of the 2007-08 school year. It was $140,000 through the first five months of this school year.
Charges were on pace to reach $300,000 by the end of the year. Mary Swift, director of Albuquerque’s food and nutrition services, said her department had no way to absorb that debt as it had in the past.
“We can’t use any federal lunch program money to pay what they call bad debt. It has to come out of the general budget and of course that takes it from some other department,” Swift said.
With the new policy, the school district has collected just over $50,000 from parents since the beginning of the year. It also identified 2,000 students eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunches, and more children in the lunch program means more federal dollars for the district.
School officials said the policy was under consideration for some time and parents were notified last fall. Families with unpaid charges are reminded with an automated phone call each night and notes are sent home with children once a week.
Swift added that the cheese sandwiches — about 80 of the 46,000 meals the district serves daily — can be considered a “courtesy meal,” rather than an alternate meal.
Some districts, she noted, don’t allow children without money to eat anything.
Albuquerque Public Schools “has historically gone above and beyond as far as treating children with dignity and respect and trying to do what’s best with for the child and I think this is just another example,” Swift said.
I dont know why this is a big deal. If you cant afford to give your child money for a meal, atleast the school district is giving them something. Its not like they arent getting food at all. I bet that little girl who would “throw up” if she ate a cheese sandwich again would gladly eat one if they just stopped feeding her at school completely.
Wait they give you food when you don’t pay for it? WTF?
When I didn’t pay for school lunch they simply didn’t give me food. I think someone forgot what paying for something means. And yes, if lots of people at my school didn’t pay and still got a halfway decent lunch you can rest assured I wouldn’t have paid either. That whole system is begging to be abused and obviously is.
I bet 9/10 of those parents unwilling to pay for their kids lunch buy something during the day for themselves that could have made up for it.
It was the same with my school, if you didnt have money to eat lunch, you didnt eat. These kids are lucky they even get that.
no lie. that’s ridiculous. i can understand that they are poor, but at least they are getting something to eat. i’m sorry, but if you are receiving a handout, you don’t get to be picky.
this can be easily solved. On mondays wednesdays and fridays, feed the kids cheese sandwitches. On tuesdays and thursdays, give them peanut butter sandwitches, with jelly packets for 10 cents. This is how my school did it, and all the kids loved it. I use to buy their cheese sandwitches, gave them 50 cents for it, and they would go spend it in the vending machine. Who says free hand outs don’t help the economy. Cheese sandwitch trading was the *edited* back in the day, it paid for my powerade.
yeah this is *edited*in stupid, if your mom forgot your lunch money, you went hungry, it really helped in wrestling season. but I completely agree with the beggers can’t be choosers. Think about how much it costs the school in labor, foodcost, and cleanup costs for all those FREE sand/bev combos. I think people in this country are starting to expect too much from the little effort they put in. My grandfather walked uphill both ways to school (technically I do as well, it’s a suspension bridge
), but now parents get mad when the bus doesn’t stop directly in front of their house?!Okay I agree that families who don’t qualify for free lunches shouldn’t get the free hand outs. But I don’t agree with letting the kids starve. It’s not their fault their parents are losers. It’s not their fault they don’t have lunch money to pay for lunch. You all are also right, on the fact that beggars can’t be choosers. And the lady who wrote the article got it wrong, cheese sandwiches are not served cold, the majority of schools heat them up.
But just to argue for the sake of arguing, I think something needs to be done. I don’t agree with not feeding a kid if they don’t have any money. That is the very wrong way to go. Sure, it might work for a kid who misses out on 1 or 2 payments, but when a kid never has the money, because his parents don’t care about him, that will lead him down a bad path. I knew a lot of kids growing up who depended on the school systems breakfast and lunch, it was the only source of nutrition they got. Depriving them of intake automatically sets him up for failure. And malnutrition is just the surface of the issues this creates. The only options a kid has in this situation, would be either to starve, steal, bully, or join a gang. Kids aren’t just going to take the fact that they are poor. Their minds are still immature and growing, what they need is something to depend on. Those parents may complain about the cheese sandwiches, but cheese sandwiches are what’s keeping those kids off the streets. Fo real.
I think schools should be allowed to use left overs. If you have ever been in the back of the cafeteria, or any restaurant for that matter, you’d be amazed at how much good food is just thrown away on a daily basis. The schools want an answer to their lunch financial problems? the answer is in the delicious smorgasbord they call trash. Set aside an extra lunch period, and feed the kids left overs.
ok so two things, first off…
no cheese sandwich –> gangs?
I have always been privvy to the cheese sandwich, and I have never been in a gang, thus I can’t deny the validity of this statement 100%, or any % for that matter. But i’m pretty sure kids aren’t joining gangs due to the lack of cheese sandwiches
secondly,
I completely agree with your ending argument. Being a chef, we learn to use our “leftovers”, called scraps in the industry. Meat scraps are bagged up and frozen or refrigerated, everything has a shelf life, and it’s not one day. Granted the food that is out and presented to students cannot be legally given out again after 4 hours. But most places throw away a ton of food a year, I think the actual stat is like 3 tons (ie. 6000lbs). Which most can be made into soups, appetizers, beef tips… the list goes on. Most places think hiring an actual chef for their measely cafeteria lunch line is a cost that isn’t worth it. While your food cost savings as well as waste and labor are reduced dramatically. A trained chef will cut you costs 15% on food in a general cafeteria setting. Now i’m not talking about eating tuna tartar, and prime rib, it will generally be the same food, just prepared more efficiently, utilizing scraps, and cutting down on waste. Sometimes you gotta spend money to make money…
HIRE MORE CHEFS
*After June I will available as a personal chef, please use my email address in my profile for inquiries
Anyone else just STEAL lunch?
and in my eyes its just preparing them for the real world in college
“What’s for dinner today?”
“We have cheeze and bread”
“*edited*, arn’t we lucky”
.cb new_rayz said:
Okay I agree that families who don’t qualify for free lunches shouldn’t get the free hand outs. But I don’t agree with letting the kids starve. It’s not their fault their parents are losers. It’s not their fault they don’t have lunch money to pay for lunch. You all are also right, on the fact that beggars can’t be choosers. And the lady who wrote the article got it wrong, cheese sandwiches are not served cold, the majority of schools heat them up.But just to argue for the sake of arguing, I think something needs to be done. I don’t agree with not feeding a kid if they don’t have any money. That is the very wrong way to go. Sure, it might work for a kid who misses out on 1 or 2 payments, but when a kid never has the money, because his parents don’t care about him, that will lead him down a bad path. I knew a lot of kids growing up who depended on the school systems breakfast and lunch, it was the only source of nutrition they got.
If the parents are poor then the kid get the free lunches. If the parents don’t give money cause they don’t care bout there kid then that should go to DSS.
I would have saved my lunch money for other things and ate the free cheese sand and bev for lunch every day if it was available even if it is cold
AMerrill said:
I would have saved my lunch money for other things and ate the free cheese sand and bev for lunch every day if it was available even if it is coldhaha, i hustled my lunch in middleschool.
I had a Balance points thing where you just type in your student id and it was like free majic money (at the time). so ne who, my buddy would alsways give me $2 cash he had for lunch and i would just buy his lunch (like $3) and i was making bank at the end of the week. I had all the cool CowBoys pencils
NoDice said:
haha, i hustled my lunch in middleschool.I had a Balance points thing where you just type in your student id and it was like free majic money (at the time). so ne who, my buddy would alsways give me $2 cash he had for lunch and i would just buy his lunch (like $3)
looks like you were the one getting hustled. rofl
Renton said:
ok so two things, first off…no cheese sandwich –> gangs?
I have always been privvy to the cheese sandwich, and I have never been in a gang, thus I can’t deny the validity of this statement 100%, or any % for that matter. But i’m pretty sure kids aren’t joining gangs due to the lack of cheese sandwiches
secondly,
I completely agree with your ending argument. Being a chef, we learn to use our “leftovers”, called scraps in the industry. Meat scraps are bagged up and frozen or refrigerated, everything has a shelf life, and it’s not one day. Granted the food that is out and presented to students cannot be legally given out again after 4 hours. But most places throw away a ton of food a year, I think the actual stat is like 3 tons (ie. 6000lbs). Which most can be made into soups, appetizers, beef tips… the list goes on. Most places think hiring an actual chef for their measely cafeteria lunch line is a cost that isn’t worth it. While your food cost savings as well as waste and labor are reduced dramatically. A trained chef will cut you costs 15% on food in a general cafeteria setting. Now i’m not talking about eating tuna tartar, and prime rib, it will generally be the same food, just prepared more efficiently, utilizing scraps, and cutting down on waste. Sometimes you gotta spend money to make money…
HIRE MORE CHEFS
*After June I will available as a personal chef, please use my email address in my profile for inquiries
no cheese sandwich –> neglect = one of the key reasons why kids join gangs, because they are neglected. Lol it was a bull*edited* scenario I made up, but like i said, I was kind of arguing just to argue
LOOOOOL…people starvin to death all over the planet and somehow a free cheese sandwich, FRUIT, and milk is a bad thing?
I’ve been practically living off toast and cheeze whiz for the past 3 days. When I was a kid, if I didn’t pay for my lunch, they might have just put it on my “tab”, but if it didn’t get paid they wouldn’t let you buy lunch.. have to pack a lunch..
What you guys dont realize is the impact it has on the kids. There are free meal programs out there for low income/needy families that anyone can apply for. The issue at hand is that they are doing this infront of all the other kids. Image if it was you in second grade and they pulled you out of the lunch line and gave you the cold cheese sandwich. Everyone knows its because you cant afford to pay for normal food and it would be so humiliating.
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