School Lunch Debt

With the US government shutdown ongoing, many are worried about the millions of children that may face food shortages when SNAP funding pauses.

Yes, a non-trivial number of parents are abusing the system by purchasing nothing but junk food. And while I would love to argue that empty calories are better than no calories, historical evidence from post-WWII Japan shows a marked rise in average heights when food supplies and quality were restored.

Fortunately, this shutdown will eventually end because of increased pressure on lawmakers to stop playing this stupid game of chicken. However, issues of child hunger will persist.

So what does this have to do with school lunch debt?

I never heard of such a thing until my colleague Tyrone Ross started posting about it on Twitter.

This particular post was gut-wrenching because one child was being threatened with being taken and placed into foster care if his parents couldn’t clear the debt.

https://x.com/TR401/status/1154139983529172992

Free and Reduced Lunch

When I was in school, kids that couldn’t afford lunch were placed in the “free lunch” category. My brothers and I were frequently in this category. While it was embarrassing to talk about this with friends in line, at least we didn’t have to skip lunch.

Apparently, this isn’t universally true. There are some places where kids must pay money for each meal. Sounds reasonable, but what if parents won’t (or can’t) send money with their kids? Well, they go into debt.

Kids don’t understand that debt is bad. They need to eat, and the school just runs up the tab.

Eventually, this tab gets to $10 or $100 and a threatening letter goes to the parents.

Unfortunately, this isn’t uncommon. Something like 75% of schools have some form of school debt, with some totals being as high as $20,000 over hundreds of kids.

This is insane, but not surprising.

My Mom

Despite being on free lunch, it turns out that my mom was able to help other kids that didn’t qualify, but still showed up to school empty handed.

Everyone knew that my mom had a big heart. So it turns out, kids that weren’t able to get the lunch lady to budge, they would ask her and she’d help them out.

Tyrone Ross does something similar. In the past, he has stopped by local schools and paid off the school debt for multiple students.

I think this is why I felt so inspired to donate heavily to local food banks during the COVID pandemic, and why I try to be as generous as possible to them in the winter months where being cold and hungry is the worst.

While SNAP pausing will be very disruptive, food insecurity will continue to be a major issue for many. If you feel so inspired, donate anything you can to a local food bank or call a school and clear some lunch debt for a kid in need.