Anti-lunch shame bills introduced

U.S. House, Senate to take up legislation modeled on NM law

WASHINGTON — A first-inthe-nation New Mexico law that prevents schools from identifying students whose parents don’t pay their cafeteria bills is a model for new legislation that the state’s congressional Democrats hope to pass in Congress.

Companion U.S. House and Senate bills introduced Monday — dubbed the Anti-Lunch Shaming Act — would ban schools from singling out children, such as requiring them to wear wristbands or hand stamps or to clean cafeteria tables because their parents have not paid their school meal debts. Earlier this year, the New Mexico Legislature passed and Gov. Susana Martinez signed into law a similar bill at the state level. The state now requires schools to serve a meal that meets federal standards to any student who asks for one, regardless of ability to pay, unless a parent wants the meal withheld.

The law in New Mexico, sponsored by Sens. Michael Padilla and Linda Lopez, both D-Albuquerque, has generated widespread national media attention. The Washington Post, The New York Times, Good Morning America and CNN have run stories about the law and the broader issue of child hunger. They often featured Jenny Ramo, executive director of the anti-poverty group New Mexico Appleseed, which helped craft both the New Mexico law and the federal legislation introduced this week.

The congressional bill introduced Monday doesn’t require that a lunch be served to a child even if their meal account is in arrears as New Mexico’s law does. But the federal legislation would ban the use of humiliation or throwing a child’s meal away because their parents haven’t paid their school meal bills. The congressional law also would require schools to direct communications regarding meal debt to the parent, not the child. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, both D-N.M., introduced the federal legislation in the Senate this week, while Reps. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Ben Ray Luján, both D-N.M., filed an identical bill in the House. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., was not a sponsor.

“The congressman has stated before that what is best for the students is to have funding and decisions made at the school district level,” Pearce spokeswoman Keeley Christensen said.

Udall said his bill would give the federal government a role.

“When it comes to lunch shaming, we prohibit it,” Udall told reporters on a conference call about the bill on Tuesday. “It makes local schools know that kind of behavior is wrong.”

But Udall also said the public should urge their local school boards to address the issue.

Gov. Martinez and state lawmakers found common ground on the hunger legislation, which supporters say was the first law of its kind on the nation.

“Study after study tells us that hungry students can’t keep up in school to meet their potential,” Martinez wrote in her message approving the bill.