Last year, students who were $20 into the negative on their school meal accounts received a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a fruit, vegetable and milk for lunch.
This school year, they’ll be able to eat the lunch of their choice if the school board approves proposed changes to the meal charge policy on Aug. 17. Those changes include eliminating the “alternative meal” requirement for students who have reached their charge limits.
Under the new procedure, students who run out of money in their school meal account will be allowed to charge up to $13.80, or two meals a day for three days.
But even after they hit their limit, it’ll be impossible to tell from what’s on their plates that their account is in debt.
“We will offer a normal meal to all boys and girls no matter what. I feel very strongly about that,” Superintendent Laura Hammack said.
All across the country, schools are revamping policies related to alternative meals in order to avoid “lunch shaming” of students.
The National School Lunch Program requires school corporations to establish written administrative guidelines and procedures for meal charges.
“Our old policy did have an alternative meal in it. We decided to revamp not just that, but also the USDA required us to have bad debt procedure in place, so we went ahead and put those two things together,” said Jason Kirchhofer, director of food services.
Like last school year, once a child’s lunch account goes into the negative, a letter will be sent home every week with the student letting the parents/guardians know the account has a negative balance.
Students still will be notified by cashiers once the money in their account gets low.
This year, parents also will get an automated phone call to notify them when their child’s meal account is running low.
Parents can monitor their student lunch accounts using Skyward, an online system accessible on the school district’s website. Payments can be made through the website for a fee.
If the charge limit is hit, Kirchhofer will send a letter home in the mail. If the parent doesn’t contact Kirchhofer or has not attempted to contact him, the building principal would then get involved.
If parents don’t pay after the principal gets involved, and the child continues to come to school with no lunch and no money, “the proper authorities” will get involved, as this could be a sign of abuse or neglect, Kirchhofer’s proposal reads.
“We’re going to make sure the students eat, but more importantly hold parents more accountable to make sure that they understand they can’t just expect the school to pay for it and then not be responsible for their own child’s wellbeing,” Kirchhofer said.
Last year, the school district carried $701.71 in negative lunch balances at the end of the year. In 2015, the total meal debt by the end of school was $3,287.03.
Every year the USDA requires school corporations to start the new school year without any negative balances. Letters will be sent home about one week before the end of school letting parents know the student has a negative balance.
Negative balances of more than $20 will be sent to collections or any other legal method necessary to get the funds, according to the proposed new procedures. Any debt that is not collected is “bad debt” and will be written off as an operating loss.
Operating losses cannot be paid with school district funds.
Some schools choose to cover that gap with donations. That donation fund could be contributed to by the public, by graduating seniors who have money left in their lunch accounts, or by retiring teachers, Kirchhofer said.
Last year, five people visited his office and offered a total of $500 to help pay off lunch debt, he said.
“I think people want to do what’s best for our community, so I am very optimistic,” Kirchhofer said about the donation fund.
“I hope we have a community that can surround its arms around kids that need food.”
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The school board will decide next week whether or not to install new vending machines at the high school.
If approved, two machines would be installed near the main entrance of Brown County High School, Brown County Schools Food Service Director Jason Kirchhofer told the board Aug. 3.
These would be the first vending machines in the building.
The machines would be open any time the building is open. They will allow the use of debit/credit cards and cash, and students will be able to use their lunch PIN to purchase items, too.
One machine will be a standard vending machine with no temperature controls; the other will be able to offer hot and cold food items.
Kirchhofer said he will be able to control what goes in the machines and ensure they meet the nutrition standards set forth by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Items will be available for purchase during lunch, too.
Kirchhofer said based on his research, it’s possible for the vending machines will be a new revenue stream for the food service department. One school in Wisconsin had 724 high school students using two vending machines, and earned $41,386.35 last year after labor, food and other expenses were subtracted, he said.
Brown County High School has around 640 students.
Another school in Michigan earned $35,000 off of the machines, he said. The average amount students spent at that school was $5.11 per day.
“This is going to be an opportunity where I can take the money we take and reinvest it into the longevity of my program,” Kirchhofer said.
Kirchhofer said a light switch would have to be moved to power the vending machines, and that would cost around $1,200.
The cost to rent the machines is $459.96 per month for five years, and then the district will own them, he said.
“I talked to a couple of food directors and they say most of them made so much money the first year or so, they paid them off.”
The district can terminate the contract at any time.
“It’s potentially a great revenue stream for food service,” Superintendent Laura Hammack said. “If it doesn’t work, we also love the idea that we can get out of it really easily. It’s not a commitment forever.”
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Anyone is able to donate to the school lunch fund by contacting food service director Jason Kirchhofer at 812-988-6601.
Checks also can be mailed to the administration building at P.O. Box 38 Nashville, IN 47448, made out to “Brown County Food Service Donation.”
Donors can specify which school or student they want the money to help or how they want the donation distributed.
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