This is one of those cases where you wish school districts wouldn't do it, but you understand why they have to.
Instead of the regular school lunch, school districts around the country are serving a cold cheese sandwich, fruit and a carton of milk to children of parents who are delinquent in paying their lunch fees. It is called the "cheese-sandwich policy."
It's a safe bet this isn't imported brie or artisanal goat cheese we're talking about, but curling slices of an unnaturally yellow product described as "processed cheese food."
These are the children of families who are deemed able to pay all or at least part of their kids' lunch tab, but for whatever reason don't. The school is faced with the choice of letting the poor kid go hungry or, if you'll excuse the word play, eating the cost of the meal. Thus the frugal and minimalist plain cheese sandwich. Children whose families are too poor to pay are eligible for free lunches, for which the federal government reimburses the school.
According to the Associated Press, the unpaid lunch bills can add up to serious money in these hard times. In Albuquerque, N.M., AP says, unpaid lunch charges were around $55,000 in 2006, but are on track to reach $300,000 this year.
All children hate to be singled out from their peers, but the school district shouldn't have to make up the loss when there are programs that subsidize lunch for the genuinely needy.
The school districts are penalizing the wrong people. We don't know quite how the school districts can pull it off, but there is a more effective solution: Make the parents eat the cheese sandwiches, three times a day if need be.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
My understanding of this
My understanding of this article is that they are not serving cheese sandwiches and milk only to those students who are deemed able to pay, but don't. They are serving this meal to students who are waiting for their meal applications to be processed. These students may very well eventually qualify for free meals, right? And while I realize that school districts are allowed 10 days in which to process meal applications, could they not hire more personnel or buy a software that would eliminate some of the wait time for these families? It seems unnecessary for this to have become such a large issue, both money-wise and news-wise. I have always agreed with you on the concept of having the parents go through the unavoidable humiliation and unappetizing alternate meal instead of the students.
Processing meal applications
Although school districts are allowed 10 days to process the applications, it is not in their best interest to do so. Every day that the student receives the alternate meal they are losing money. I work in a district where over 75% of our 7000 students are eligible for meal benefits and except for at the very beginning of the year where we may have up to 300 applications daily, our students are processed the same day we get the application if it is complete. At the beginning of the year it may take a couple of days at the most. We also get TONS of applications that have the students name and the parent's signature and no other information. With that we have to either deny them as incomplete or take the time to look up the student and call the parent to ask for the information that should have been on the ap to begin with. We actually have a person whose main responsibility is to process the aps, but with districts all over looking at budget cuts we never know what will be the next thing to go.
Cheese Sandwiches in School Lunch
I agree that a cold cheese sandwich can be hard to take even for a hungry child. Sunflower seed butter avoids all the peanut butter issues and is very healthy.
cheese sandwich alternate lunch
I bagged a cheese sandwich and juice almost every day when I was growing up. I survived and was even able to go to school and get a masters degree.
Delinquent accounts drive up the cost of the school lunch for paying students. If truly needy, there are meal applications readily available for families to apply. Many are available online.
Parents have a responsibility to pay their debt. Kids will survive eating a cheese sandwich for a few days. If nothing else, the parents will hear about it when the student comes home and complains. then tthey will pay up.
Ever hear of making mountains out of molehills? This is a prime example of the dysfunctional society this country contains and the parents who propagate it through their overreaction to this issue. thanks.
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