In This Rhode Island School District, Students with School Lunch Debt Have to Eat Cold Sandwiches

updated May 9, 2019

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Warwick, a school district in Rhode Island, is facing serious backlash after instituting a policy which requires that children who have not paid school lunch fees must be served cold sunflower butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. Detractors argue that the policy only serves to shame the students who can’t afford the fees, not to mention that the meager meal could seriously affect their ability to focus in class.

Officials argue that the policy is necessary because the school district is owed thousands of dollars in unpaid lunch fees and also faces a budget deficit (though one wonders why innocent children must be punished for those issues — especially because they have no control over their parents’ bank account balances).

According to The Washington Post, a local restaurant owner offered $4,000 to help pay off the lunch debt but was rebuffed by the school district (in response she’s asked any parent struggling to reach out to her directly so she can help pay off student lunch debt on an individual basis).

So-called lunch shaming has become an increasingly controversial issue in recent years, usually eliciting strong public outcry. These policies, critics say, unfairly stigmatize low-income children (though there could be many reasons that a parent hasn’t paid lunch fees, including that they simply forgot or neglected to fill out paperwork that would qualify their kids for school subsidized lunch).

In response to the controversy, states like Virginia, California, and New Mexico have banned lunch-shaming policies (Rhode Island is currently considering legislation ensuring that all students regardless of income receive hot lunch). However, some cafeteria workers have quit or been fired because they tried to give students in need hot food against school policy over unpaid lunch fees.

Parents and concerned citizens in Warwick, tired of the school district’s inaction, decided to take matters into their own hands: A GoFundMe campaign has already raised nearly $53,000 to pay off the total $77,000 school lunch debt.