Baker outlaws ‘lunch shaming’ in Bay State
School cafeteria workers must give kids hot meals
With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Charlie Baker has eliminated the practice of “lunch shaming” in Massachusetts.
The law will now prevent school cafeteria workers from giving students cold sandwiches when a kid can’t pay for their meals and tossing the hot meals into the trash.
“We are grateful to Governor Baker and the Massachusetts Legislature for taking seriously the need to change the meal debt practices in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” said Georgia Katsoulomitis, the executive director of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, which released a 2018 study that inspired the law.
“No child should be made to feel uncomfortable at school because their family is unable to afford a school lunch,” she added. “This new law will ensure that more children have access to free lunches at school and will put limits on how meal debt is collected.”
The bill also prevents other “lunch shaming” measures like preventing students from participating in extracurriculars or walking at graduation due to unpaid lunch debt. The bill would also require schools in which over 60% of students’ families are eligible for free meals to use federal funds for free breakfast and lunch for all students, regardless of income. Currently, just over 100 districts in the Commonwealth participate in this program at either the district or school level, according to a Project Bread blog post.
Patricia Baker, who authored the 2018 study on the issue, said the issue “keeps children out of what should be an ‘adult only’ conversation on school meal debt.” She added that “more work needs to be done,” however, to stop food insecurity among Massachusetts children.
State Rep. Andres Vargas, D-Haverhill, who filed the bill in the House, said in a statement that he’s “thrilled that Governor Baker signed our bill to expand access to free school meals and end harmful student meal debt practices. I look forward to working with the administration to ensure successful and authentic implementation of the law’s cost-neutral provisions.”
Baker’s office did not respond to a request for comment.