Carbon District moves toward an alternate lunch policy

For students, the value of being able to eat both breakfast and lunch at the schools in Carbon School District is tremendous. Educators know that a well fed student is a student that is ready to learn.
That value is even greater when one realizes that breakfast for all students in all the schools is free and that many can qualify for either free or reduced prices on lunch as well. It is a win-win for both the student and parents.
The nutrition department works closely with the schools to assure that every student gets a good lunch each day. In the past that meant that sometimes students who had no money left in their lunch accounts, or because of that had an outstanding balance, still got the eat. However that situation is becoming problematic for the district. School lunch debt in the district, that this last school year topped $45,000, is becoming a bigger problem each calendar year.
Child Nutrition Director Patti Rigby, whose department faced a federal audit on the lunch program this summer, says the district has to find a way to get the food service program back into the black. One thing that will help, but may cause consternation for some parents and unhappiness in students, is the now mandated alternate lunch program.
In the past high school and middle school students could charge up to seven lunches before being told that they couldn’t eat at all until they either paid for that days lunch or they fixed their debt problem. But in the elementary schools it was different; food was always served regardless of whether the bill had been paid or not.
“We literally have parents who have never paid for their students lunches the entire time they have attended elementary school,” said Rigby. “This fall there will be some surprised parents when we changed things. Some of them owe hundreds of dollars.”
Rigby said to be clear this is not about students who get free lunch. Those lunches are truly free. It is about those who are supposed to pay for lunch. She says many of those who have the means to pay don’t.
“I was told by the auditors that we would have to raise lunch prices this year to make up for the deficit,” she said. “That means those that were paying would have to subsidize those who did not.”
She pleaded with them because she wanted to keep the lunch costs down as much as possible for those that do pay. She came to a compromise with them, that for this year only, adult lunch prices would be raised lunch prices would be raised (from $3.75 to $4.00) and any money that food service made from catering would go toward covering the debt. But if it doesn’t work, she said other things may have to change.
The newly mandated alternate lunch will be a factor in controlling the spiraling debt. This year in the elementary schools once a student has reached a limit of five lunches charged, or owe a bill equivalent to that, they will receive the alternate lunch. That lunch will come in a brown paper bag and will include a four inch hoagie bun with two ounces of cheese and a cup of fruit. It will also include the students choice of chocolate or white milk. The student can also have the vegetable that is offered that day, or they can refuse it if they don’t want it. None of this is meant to be punitive, but something to balance the books has to be done.
“To break even we attempted to keep the cost of these alternate lunches at 30 cents, but we had to raise it to 35 cents,” said Rigby. “Parents will still need to pay for that lunch, but then their debt will go up much more slowly.”
She said this will be a shock to the system of some who have expected their kids to get a full lunch whether they paid or not. While the alternate lunch will still be a healthy, good lunch, it will take away all the choices from students who get that instead of a regular school lunch.
“We see people who don’t pay and they have a thousand excuses why not,” she said. “Some say they thought they had paid and others say that the money must have been lost on the way to school. We send invoices to student’s homes and when we have talked to post office about the delivery of the bills, they tell us that some of the invoices sit in peoples mail boxes, while they take their other mail out. We realize that money can be tight for people, even if they make a good wage. But there are many alternatives in terms of payments or even what they pay if they will just contact us.”
One of the things she emphasizes is that there are probably a lot of people out there who are struggling with paying the full price for their kids lunches, yet they could be on reduced lunch price.
“I think many people would be surprised if they knew they could qualify,” she said. “They may make what seems to be a lot of money, but if they have a number of kids, or have someone living with them that is a dependent beside their kids, or other circumstances, those conditions all factor in.”
For Rigby it is a struggle of emotion vs. logic. She worries about students not getting enough to eat, but she also has a job to manage the costs. The redeeming factor here however is that Carbon School District is unusual in that it serves free breakfast to any student who wants it at every school, every school day. Not many districts do that.
“So if a child gets free breakfast and a reduced rate lunch every day, that’s pretty good,” she said.
Because of the difficulty of collecting debt from non-paid lunch accounts the district has utilized a collection company. Once the debt gets over $50 it goes to collections. However collecting it may be way down the line with many because it seems based on Rigby’s observations that for most of the people that they have sent to collections there is a line of other creditors waiting for their money ahead of the school district.
She said the district offers many ways to pay for school lunch and that this new policy is going to affect people who come to school with a big bill from the past.
“The options for that situation is that they can pay daily or they can set up a payment plan to get the debt reduced,” she said. “There are six methods of payment: cash, check, credit card, debit card, auto bill pay and invoicing on-line, where they can pay right there on the screen. If they give us their email we will give them a coupon for each parent to come and eat with their child for free one day.”
Rigby said if the new plan doesn’t work to reduce the debt and get the lunch program back in the black some other things may need to change. Those options could include removing the salad bars from schools or even taking away the free breakfast option.
“I don’t want to see us have to do that,” she said. “ I think it is important for kids to have a good breakfast…it puts them in a positive mood for the day and they get a better education.”