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Imagine being at elementary school and do not have the luxury of eating a hot breakfast like the rest of your classmates all because of an exceptional debt in your lunch account or receive astamp on your hand That said "I need a lunch breakfast." For many children in the United States, it's their current reality. Unfortunately, the smoothing that accompanies children from the debt of school meals and young teenagers throughout America. At the end of the 2017-18 school year, theAssociation of school nutrition Says 75% of Nationwide school districts have reported unpaid student meal debt.

According to the USDAFood aid landscape 2018 Annual Report, approximately 29.7 million children participated in theNational school lunch program Every school day. It is an assisted meal program by the federal government that offers breakfast and lunch for children at a reduced price or free of charge, depending on income levels. The number of participants, however, is down one per cent compared to last year and at seven percent from 2011, when the participation of the Average School Nadi program peaked at 31.8 million. Always,43% of American school districts Sign that the number of students without adequate school meals has increased the last school year. The difference between the number of students participating in the National School Program and those with lack of funds is attributable to income requirements and enrollment in the program. Without these two control factors, the debt of school lunch begins to accumulate.

What is the school lunch debt?

The school lunch debt is unpaid dining expenses that accumulate in a student's lunch fund account. It can be detrimental to both the family and the school district because, in most districts, a child can not be refused a meal at school - even with insufficient funds - and as a result, the school accumulates the debt.

"What happens when a student is unable to pay for their meal? This is where the problem arises, "says Diane Pratt-Heavner, spokesman for the Association of School Nutrition. "It becomes a problem not only for the meal program, but for the district as a whole, because when the district tried to collect money and is unable to pay this debt using funds. school district. "

School district funds are traditionally designed to cover education costs and not meals.

The national school lunch program gives schools a federal money summit to give qualifying students. The debt that accumulates students whose families are not eligible for a free lunch - or other reasons are not registered in the program - will not be mitigated by the federal government.

This is due to the 2010 Children's Health Act without hunger, which asked USDA in July 2017 to establish regulations to cover the debt committed by schools. One of the regulations applied has included the restriction of schools using federal funds to repay any debt committed by insufficient funds. He also required each school district to establish a policy on how they manage the issue.

A member of the USDAFood and nutrition service wrote in an email "[the] USDA gives the discretion of local school districts to develop their own meal expense policies according to their real experience managing the program."

The budget that the federal government attributes to schools for meal programs is tight as it is.

"They do not receive a little more than $ 3.00 for each meal served at each student and who should cover all costs, not just food, but all the work, equipment and supplies, so it does not There is therefore no financing really available to cover this debt. Although they were allowed to use federal funds, "said Pratt-Lavner.

If school district funds can not cover debt, the school then turns to charity organizations for help.

How does this problem occur in the first place?

A child may not receive lunch at a reduced price or for free for various reasons. For example, parents can not be informed of the options available to them. For a child to receive free and discounted lunches, parents must complete an application to see if they qualify. Parents must also submit a new annual application to continue to receive coverage on school lunch funds.

Children who come from families with an annual income about 130% of the level of poverty are eligible for free meals at school. For the 2019-20 school year, 130% of the level of poverty is $ 33,475 for a family of four,According to SNA. Children from families who make an income that falls between 130% and 185% of the level of poverty ($ 47,638 for a family of four) can receive lunch for a fraction of the cost. In this program, the student pays only 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. As a comparison, breakfast and lunch at the average elementary school costs $ 1.46 and $ 2.48, respectively. However, sometimes, the price of reduced lunch still does not support families.

"There may be children in this reduced price category that struggle to pay for this co-salary," said Pratt-Lavner. "We have seen some states take the stage to try to eliminate this co-salary for children at a reduced price for breakfast, some have even done that for lunch, just because many of these families really live on margins. "

There is another way that children can receive a free lunch or a reduced price that does not require an application. In high poverty areas, where at least 40% of children in the district or in school are eligible for free and discounted meals, a federal program called community eligibility provision covers the cost of breakfast and lunch For each child, without taking into account parental income. .

Of course, all districts are not eligible for the CEP, which makes registration for the national school lunch program that is much more important. Language barriers and even fear of completing the necessary documents for demand may also be reasons why children who qualify do not receive the funds they need to cover their school meals.

Here's how you can get help if you are affected by the school lunch debt.

"In terms of individual families in difficulty, we always encourage them to reach the school nutrition service [district] because they are usually willing to develop a payment plan or try to connect the family with another Type of assistance, "says Pratt-Lavner.

It adds that the Nutrition Department can provide assistance to complete the meal program demand and even connect the family to a charitable organization that can potentially cover the costs of any existing debt.

"There are a number of school districts that have worked with local non-profits or companies to develop charity funds to repay the lunch debt for families in need," she said. She said. "The Department of School District Nutrition or the Food Services Department would be the best place to reach information."

What are some organizations that can help?

The school lunch fairy Does any of these charities launch funds to set up emergency meal funds in public schools at the national level, instead of covering lunch debt, this organization prevents debt. If a student does not have enough funds on their account that day, the emergency funds will be there to cover their expensive lunch on the same day.

There are also several organizations that also contribute to mitigating lunch debt at school at state level. In Texas, for example, a network of food banks calledTexas helped increase more than $ 200,000,000 to coverSchool debt in the state in 2017.

Many other organizations are also available at the local level, so make sure you contact the Nutrition Department of your school district to see which organizations provide assistance.

Crowdfunding donations and private donations are also a good short-term solution. There are manyGOFUNDME Groups Who are currently working to solve the debts of school lunch in specified areas of the nation.

Large companies also have the ability to intervene and donate to the cause. Just this year,Chobani entered and contributed almost$ 50,000 at Warwick Public Schools In Rhode Island after the District announced that children of insufficient funds would be served as sandwiches in the sun and jelly with their vegetables, fruits and milk, as opposed to hot menu items. The school district needed $ 77,000 to clarify student luncheon debts and with the help of two Gofundme and Chobani campaigns, the school district has received a total of $ 150,000.

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Solutions to the resolution of the school lunch debt.

Similar to other complex issues such as food insecurity andfood desert, Fundfunding and donations will not solve the problem to its core - it will take time to solve and probably at a systematic level. Write letters to your local representatives in Congress can raise awareness of the issue.

In the meantime, several states work to disaggregate the debt from a school lunch.Civilian eatenReported that New York, Iowa, New Mexico, California, Minnesota and Texas have all "legislation promulgated to derogate from lunch."

Cities and specific school districts take it on themselves to adopt changes.

Public Schools of Montgomery County in Rockville, Maryland, for example, created theDinner with dignity Program to help pay lunch debt balances at the end-of-year school. This program also allows students who do not meet the qualifications of a free price lunch or reduced price to enjoy a meal of their choice, as opposed to an alternative meal because of the exceptional debt.

"It's important to know that school meal programs really make all attempts to avoid this problem at the beginning," says Pratt-Lavner. "School nutrition professionals running these programs are in this job because they care about feeding children, and they really want to make sure every child has access to a meal - they know how important these meals are important for the Realization of students. "

To avoid significant amounts of debt in children's accounts, schools are making efforts to facilitate parents to navigate and monitor account balances. She stated that most school districts are starting to invest in meal payment applications and other software that allows parents to follow meal account balances and receive e-mails and text alerts when balances are low. Some school districts even introduce a pre-payment system so that payments are automatically performed once the account balance slips under a certain dollar.

With regard to long-term solutions, SNA estimates that the best way to solve the problem is to provide students with free meals.

"Our organization advocates universal and free school meals," says Pratt-Lavner. "We all know that school meals are essential to the realization of students - school meals are just as important to learn that manuals ... [and] A hungry student will not be able to focus on their studies or which happens in the class. "