A look at school lunch debt in Texas

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In 2017, when State Rep. Helen Giddings (D-Desoto) held up a piece of yellow cheese as an example of giving or taking away lunch to students who didn’t have the money to pay for their school lunch in the Dallas area, it was a slice of life for the purpose of his bill to stop the “lunch shame”.

After her the original invoice is dead on the floor of the house, Rep. Giddings grabbed her bootstraps and continued her continued efforts to prevent school lunch shame towards students who are struggling to pay for their lunch. Rep. Giddings’ voice for anti-lunch shame led to an amendment of Senate Bill 1566, and fundraising efforts with Feeding Texas, a statewide association of food banks. They created a donation page to pay back school catering debt and Rep. Giddings said at the time, “It’s our hope, it’s our goal to raise enough money that any school will have a deficit, we can take care of that with this fund.” They raised over $200,000 together for the unpaid school lunch debt. So here’s a look at how lunch-shaming efforts meet school debt.

How Texas Feeds Its Students

The United States Department of Agriculture program administers 12 federal infant and special nutrition programs for the State of Texas. In the 2018-2019 school year, there were 551 million lunches served in Texas public schools.

Angela Olige, TDA Assistant Commissioner for Food and Nutrition, told Reform Austin: ‘The Department of Agriculture works daily to ensure that all students can receive the vital nutrition needed to reach their full potential. .

“Growing up healthy Texans requires available, quality nutrition that allows our students to focus in the classroom, reduces learning disruptions, and sets students on a path to success throughout life. life. Ensuring that program operators understand federal regulations and are supported to successfully meet the nutritional needs of children is a key component to ensuring school district success in the cafeteria and in the classroom. Our children are our greatest asset and by setting them up for success, we are setting up a bright future for our communities and our economy.

When it comes to solving the lunch debt problem in Texas, Olige says, “Strategies to avoid and reduce lunch debt are considered and developed locally. TDA provides detailed guidance and a variety of resources to help districts understand laws and regulations as well as best practices for managing meal debt.

The grace period and policies for students who have more money in their meal accounts varies by neighborhood and city in Texas (when to send a letter to parents or debit their account after a negative balance or offer alternative meals) and schools create an unpaid meal policy to define what happens when a student is unable to pay for a meal.

The School Nutrition Association (SNA) School Nutrition Trends Report 2019 In the United States, charitable donations are the most commonly cited source for lunch debt collection. Individual school funds and PTA/PTO funds are secondary sources. School catering debt is a national problem and the USDA Food and Nutrition Service website states that “unpaid meal expenses represent a difficult and complex issue that directly impacts the schools participating in our programs.”

Raising funds to reduce lunch debt on the rise

In Texas, crowdfunding and Fund raising for dinner, the debt increases and the students get involved. Last December, Austin Reform reported that more than $10,000 had been raised to pay off the Austin Independent School District’s debt after an eighth-grader worried about his classmates. Also in December 2019, Oak Ridge Elementary in Houston received a anonymous lunch debt donation for all school lunch debt, repaying $1,400 on 650 meals. GoFundMe campaigns acting as lunch angelswith the goal of zeroing out lunch sales, are happening all over Texas, including San Antonio where a lunch debt has been reported to $28,000 in November 2019. This month, an even bigger lunch debt reduction was made in Killeen, TX, where more than 50% of students receive free or reduced lunch, as a non-profit organization, helped pay off a debt of $130,000. the lunch debt erasure movement in Texas means schools are raising awareness that they need help paying off their lunch debt on their website pages and fundraising platforms.

Texas students and the need for more than a school lunch

Let’s go back to the need for breakfast and lunch programs for Texas students and it extends beyond the school day. As debt is on the minds of Texans, so is the need for meal programs when school is not in session. In Houston, over the past winter break, a handful of Houston ISD schools served breakfast and lunch. Last year, during the 2018 and 2019 school year, in Texas’ largest district, more than 280 qualified schools to provide all students, regardless of household income, with three meals a day under the USDA Community Eligibility Program. The Dallas Independent School District has also feed all their students free. According to Food Research and Action CenterAcross Texas, the turnout ratio of students receiving free or discounted lunch and after-school dinners is 8.5 percent.

Anneliese Tanner, Austin CIO The Executive Director of Food Services and Warehouse Operations, told Reform Austin, “Our mission at Austin ISD is to support the success of all students by expanding access to food, serving healthy and great-tasting meals. and providing learning opportunities about nutrition, cultural eating habits, and the food system. Breakfast and lunch are available daily for the district’s 80,000 students. Many campuses also offer meals outside of the school day through after-school and summer programs.

Austin ISD serves about 75,000 meals a day across the district, according to Tanner.

Betti Wiggins, Houston ISD Nutrition Services Manager, told Reform Austin, “Houston ISD is committed to providing our students with as many opportunities as possible to receive wholesome, healthy meals. The USDA Community Eligibility Program allows us to remove barriers to accessing healthy meals for many of our students. It also allows our Nutrition Services Department to develop our meal programs in a way that best serves our families.

Reflecting the anti-‘lunch shame’ legislation that has sparked a conversation about feeding all children in Texas cafeterias, Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas, told Reform Austin, “Rep. Giddings’ efforts to pass legislation and obtain funds to prevent lunchtime shaming have been instrumental in raising awareness of the problem in Texas. His good work helped spur legislation at the federal level that would end lunchtime shaming for good. The Universal School Meals Act would prohibit schools from denying meals to children, reimburse schools for any outstanding school meal debt, and provide free meals to children in daycare, school, after school and during school breaks. summer, regardless of family income.

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