Schools wrestle with lunch debt

The money may not be there, but the food has to be.

School lunch debt is an issue plaguing many Pennsylvania school districts, leaving a shortfall at the end of the year that has to be covered from other areas of the budget.

During a school board meeting in May, Ryan Kish, Palmerton Area School District business manager, said 205 students had delinquent lunch debt totaling almost $11,000.

Pennsylvania passed a lunch-shaming law in 2017, requiring schools to provide a meal to any student who requests one, regardless if they have money. It also put strict measures against publicizing any student who owed money and set guidelines on how parents should be notified.

“The schools do send letters home and the business office has been involved,” Kish said of efforts to recoup the balance. “Response to this point has been minimal. It seriously hampers the financials as far as our food service account is concerned.”

In December, Tamaqua Area School District reported a total of $21,856 in outstanding debt from the schools’ food service accounts. At that time, there were 42 accounts in the district that exceed $100 in unpaid lunches.

A School Nutrition Association survey found widespread unpaid meal debt, even as districts employ multiple proactive tactics to prevent or minimize student meal charge.

According to the survey, 75.3% of districts nationwide reported having unpaid student meal debt at the end of the 2016-17 school year, and 40.2% reported that the number of students without adequate funds increased over the previous year.

SNA reports the median lunch debt rose from $2,000 to $2,500 per district between 2016 and 2018.

Districts with unpaid meal debt utilize the following tactics to support families and prevent or minimize debt. The survey showed online payment/monitoring of account balances was occurring in 94.2% of districts, school staff notified parents directly about low balances or meal charges in 85.7% of districts, assistance was offered to families completing free and reduced-price applications in 82.6% of districts, automated phone calls, texts or emails for low balance notifications occurred in 77.9% of districts and financial assistance was provided through donations in 56.4% of districts.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture, new nutrition regulations added 10 cents to the cost of preparing every school lunch and 27 cents for every breakfast. Congress, in turn, provided school meal programs 6 additional cents for each lunch and no additional funds for breakfast.

In Palmerton, Kish said if the trend continues and lunch debt continues to rise, the district may have to plan for an end of the year budget transfer to help put the food service fund back in line.

“It’s something we want to avoid, pulling from other areas, but we have little recourse if we can’t recoup some of this money,” he said. “I have some ideas as far as policy that I’ll present in the future to take a look at this.”