New Mexico has approved the nation’s first law to ban the “lunch shaming” of students who can’t afford school lunches or whose parents fall behind on payments. The Hunger-Free Students’ Bill of Rights, signed by New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, applies to all schools, public or private, that accept federal money for students’ breakfast or lunch.
“In Alabama, a child short on funds was stamped on the arm with ‘I Need Lunch Money,’” says The New York Times. “In some schools, children are forced to clean cafeteria tables in front of their peers to pay the debt. Other schools require cafeteria workers to take a child’s hot food and throw it in the trash if he doesn’t have the money to pay for it.”
More than three-quarters of school districts have debt at the end each school year from unpaid lunch bills, according to the School Nutrition Association. One SNA survey found that on average the debt was a few thousand dollars, but for some districts it was as high as $4.7 million.
Instead of withholding food from students or asking them to do chores to pay for meals, New Mexico schools are supposed to focus their debt-collection efforts on parents, and if an alternative meal is served to a student in debt, it is recommended that it be offered in a paper sack so it looks like it came from home.