Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Westerly, RI Now Poor-Shaming Kids

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I expect this nonsense in Kansas, but in Rhode Island? Just south of the border, Westerly has decided to start publicly humiliating kids over a few dollars in overdue lunch money:

Parents in Westerly are outraged over a new school lunch policy in the district, saying it singles out and humiliates their children. If a student’s balance is $10 or more in the negative, they receive an alternative lunch consisting of a cheese sandwich, fruit and milk. The new policy was approved by the school committee in December, and went into effect on Monday.

Holly Gingerella said her daughter was one of the students who had their hot lunches taken from them on Monday. “She was in front of everybody, she was humiliated,” said Gingerella. “She asked if she could pay tomorrow, and they said no.” Gingerella said she had no idea she was $100 in the red, since she wasn’t given any sort of notice. […]

Eyewitness News reached out to Westerly Superintendent Roy M. Seitsinger, Jr., Ph.D. multiple times, but he’s yet to respond to questions raised by parents.

As I’ve said before, raise our taxes by a nickel and just give the kids some food. The amounts of money are trivial compared to the huge benefits of students who are fed & focused, and there are savings in not forcing schools to spend money processing piles of paperwork and wasting part of the school day haggling over a few dollars. Cities like Boston understand this and already give students free meals.

Learn more and take action at NoKidHungry.org.

 

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Comments

  1. They are still letting them eat, as of course they should, but I fail to see what this accomplishes financially.

  2. Most lunch programs lose money. The one in my community is loses a significant amount every year. Not due to non-payment. Just due to the fact that it costs more than people can be charged for lunch.

    Schools have increasingly privatized their lunch programs in an attempt to save money. The dietary, bureaucratic, equipment, and employee cost have led cash-strapped schools to outsource their cafeterias.

    I can’t speak for Westerly, but in my one of my daughters frequently forgot her card and owed money on her lunch or spent more than a lunch’s price a day. We didn’t know about this until we got a phone call. This happened multiple times.

    Not to excuse the school administration, my guess is that Aramark had a lot to do with the cheese sandwich policy.

    According to the Meal Charge Policy, the district and food service vendor Aramark “encourage parents to pre-pay meals for their children thereby eliminating situations that could develop during lunchtime over money owed.”

    Students wanting a lunch and not having money to purchase a lunch will be allowed to charge a lunch with repayment within two school days, according to the policy. Once a student has charged a total of $10 and no payment has been received, that student will receive the alternative lunch.

    The policy states that a weekly list of negative account balances of more than $10 will be forwarded to each principal by the food service vendor for notification to the families. Families will have 10 days upon receiving notification to pay or make arrangements to pay outstanding student balances.

    Student accounts with balances higher than $20 for which payment arrangements have not been made will no longer be able to charge meals until which time payment arrangements are made and/or the account is paid in full.

    Parents are encouraged to monitor breakfast/lunch account activity through the Myschoolbucks.com online system. To register, parents can go directly to the http://www.myschoolbucks.com website.

    The Washington County Coalition for Children, in a recent report on the status of children in its nine towns, said that 1,073 students in Westerly Public Schools were enrolled in the Free/Reduced Lunch Program in 2013.

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