So I’ve come across this piece of news where a so called „Arbys foundation“ payed 1000000$ to schools so that they can pay off their student‘s debts.
Now what I am wondering about, what does that mean exactly? Because what the article implies is that children are being indebted for free school lunches, which seems to lack a lot of nuance and would be illegal if it was true.
Does it simply mean that the schools themselves have to come up to pay, or is it a matter of the city government?
PS: I am German therefore I may have screwed up with the grammar and possibly the vocabulary too.
In: Economics
Depending on where you live and what income level you’re at school lunches generally aren’t free, but rather than let kids go hungry they just give them the food, but will also keep track of how many meals they got and students will run up a negative balance.
The consequences for this varies, but the majority of schools that do this will not let kids graduate with their diplomas if they owe the school money.
Note there are programs that will give reduced cost lunches or even free ones to low income families, but like with every welfare program in the US, it’s very possible to make too much to qualify for help while still struggling to make ends meet because the poverty line is waaay below the cost of living in a lot of areas.
There’s no free lunches at schools here. There is a certain amount that welfare will pay towards school lunches for kids whose parents qualify for food stamps from the government. But the rest of the kids pay cash. My kids have been out of school for a good 10 years, but back then they each had a number and an account that I would have to put money in. If the account was empty they could have lunch for like 3 days, after that they only got a peanut butter sandwich or a cheese sandwich and a cup for water. Until I paid more money.
Of course I had 1 kid that would not give me the slips from the school so I had to try to remember when I needed to put money in but since there are other things they could buy like ice cream or extra drinks, the money did not run out consistently at the same time. So that was fun to try to keep up on.
I’m guessing that the school lunch debt is either referring to those bare bones lunches it gives kids when they don’t have any money or maybe there is a lunch program for kids that consistently cannot afford regular lunch?
As a Canadian this whole thing about school lunches confuses me. No elementary schools around here (BC) have them, kids bring food from home. Same with high school. We had a cafeteria, but I’d say 90% brought their own food from home. Was on school Mid 90s-late 00s.
Kids can still bring their lunch to school, can’t they? They were never required to buy a school lunch from my memory, in fact through middle school bringing your lunch was the norm. High school was where kids started buying instead of brown-bagging.
American school provide lunch, but there is a fee for it. But the food is basically produced in bulk, where they pick a meal for that day and only serve those items. For example, a meal may be a piece of chicken, some potatoes, some beans, a piece of fruit, a slice of cake or serving of custard, and a serving of milk.
They will often publish the school lunch menu weekly so that parents know what will be served.
But some kids don’t want to eat what is on the menu, so parents send a packed lunch with the kid. If the kids brings their own lunch then they aren’t charged for the school lunch.
As others have said, the school can’t force the kid to eat, but they can make sure that every kid has something to eat.
Families that can afford to pay do, and families that can’t afford to pay don’t. The school knows pretty well which families can and can’t afford to pay. They know because some kids are always dressed nicely in new clothes and shoes and arrive with clean hands and faces and hair, and some kids are always dressed in old, worn clothes and shoes and maybe only get a bath once a week. Basically it’s the “haves” and the “have nots”.
It sucks, for the kids because they know and they are teased about it.
But regardless of their wealth, every kid gets something to eat. For some it may be the only meals they get.
Most schools within the USA require school lunches to be paid for by either the students or the students’ parents. As schools cannot deny students food by law, they instead require parents pay the cost of the lunches at a later date (debt). The cost per meal depends on the school, and how they handle the debt also depends on the school. Some schools will simply pay for the cost themselves if parents do not pay, but other schools will try their hardest to go after parents with lunch debts. Most often by they force parents to pay by withholding transcripts, which can seriously stunt scholarship and college applications.
Low income families are able to qualify for free lunch vouchers depending on the school. Depending on the setup, either the school or state or federal government will pay the lunch bill for these families. But the requirements to get on free lunch waivers can be obtuse and if you miss the paperwork deadlines, you do not get free lunches.
In most if not all schools, you can bring in a lunch from home. If you are smart about it, bringing a lunch from home can be very cheap (and it helps with picky eaters). However, as schools cannot deny students food, there is absolutely nothing stopping a misbehaving child from ordering lunch every day no matter how expensive it is for the parent. Some families also are simply too poor to afford to pay for all of their children’s meals, even at home.
Teacher here. Students who’s parents make below a certain income get free or reduced lunch and breakfast. If not parents have to pay for such. If they don’t pay there is a debt.
With that said: all students in my state (CA) now get free lunch and breakfast regardless of income. Unfortunately for me my son hates school food.
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