How ‘lunch shaming’ is facing scrutiny around the U.S.

Denying children a hot meal apparently isn’t a popular way for schools to deal with unpaid lunch money.

After a flood of angry Facebook comments and phone calls, a Rhode Island district last week abandoned its plan to serve cold sandwiches to students whose families owe money.

“The outcry was global,” said Catherine Bonang of Warwick Public Schools.

Such practices aren’t new, but they are facing more scrutiny. As the push against “lunch shaming” gains traction, here’s what you should know: since those are offered as a daily option to everyone, she said.

But the backlash prompted officials to go further and say all students would get the choice of a hot meal. A policy of not letting older students with unpaid meal charges take part in activities like dances and field trips was also recently scrapped, the district said. the nation’s thousands of schools. But in 2011, a majority of districts surveyed said they had unpaid meal charges, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the federal school lunch program. Among those schools, serving alternative meals was common. Cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were cited as alternatives.

Districts also reported taking other actions to recover costs, such as withholding grades. Germain said her son was given a sun butter sandwich in kindergarten last year. She said her heart broke when she picked him up at school, and he asked why she hadn’t paid for him.

She was also charged $2.50 for the sandwich, the same as for a hot meal.

“So the purpose of that is to humiliate the kids, shame the kids, to get the parents to pay,” said Germain, who lives in Cranston, Rhode Island, not far from Warwick.

Cranston’s school district said it no longer serves alternative meals. by children who qualified for free lunch, with charges incurred before their applications were approved.

The School Nutrition Association, which represents cafeteria operators and suppliers, said providing free lunches for all students would end confusion about charges.