Interactive > http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/09/news/economy/school-lunch-shaming-debt-crisis/index.html
Matt Antignolo has worked in public school cafeterias for 24 years.
He's learned two key truths: Just about every kid loves pizza, and an alarming number of American youngsters still can't afford a $2.35 lunch, despite the dramatic expansion of free and reduced lunch programs.
When a student doesn't have enough money for lunch, cafeteria staff in many districts, including Antignolo's, take away the child's tray of hot food and hand the student a brown paper bag containing a cold cheese sandwich and a small milk. Some schools take away their lunch entirely.
"It's the worst part of the job. Nobody likes it," says Antignolo, who's now director of food services at the Lamar Consolidated District outside Houston.
All the other kids in the lunch line know what's going on. Getting that brown bag is the lunch line equivalent of being branded with a Scarlet Letter. It's been dubbed "school lunch shaming."
It happens across the country: 76% of America's school districts have kids with school lunch debt, according to the School Nutrition Association. The horror stories keep coming. In 2015, a Colorado cafeteria worker says she was fired for personally paying for a first grader's meal. Last year, a Pennsylvania lunch lady quit in protest after being forced to take food away from a student who was $25 in debt.
Policies vary, but many schools serve an "alternate meal," like a cheese sandwich, once a student's debt hits $15.
Last month, New Mexico banned any form of lunch shaming. The dramatic move highlighted this hidden crisis in schools and ignited a national conversation about what to do when students can't pay. The federal Department of Agriculture, which oversees school meals, is requiring that districts at least have a written policy in place by July 1.
"It's very obvious who the poor kids are in the school," says New Mexico state senator Michael Padilla, who drafted the bill to stop lunch shaming. He told NPR that he mopped the cafeteria floors in order to afford lunch as a kid.
The USDA is urging districts to stop "embarrassing" and "singling out" students who don't have enough money for lunch. On Monday, US Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico introduced a bill in Congress, the Anti-Lunch Shaming Act, to ban schools from singling children out "by requiring them to wear wristbands or hand stamps or do extra chores" if they have unpaid lunch bills.
Chris Robinson hopes Texas passes a similar bill to New Mexico's. Growing up in a mostly black school, Robinson was ridiculed for not having lunch money. There was a separate line for pizza at his school. He could never afford to stand in it.
Now 33, Robinson is a special education teacher in Houston. In his first year teaching a few years back, he watched a young boy go around the cafeteria collecting food scraps before the lunch period ended. He said it took all his inner strength not to cry.
Currently, 20 million young people -- about 40% of all US students -- receive free lunches, up significantly from 13 million in 2000. Robinson can see first-hand that kids are still unable to pay for food.
"I just felt I had to do something. I can't save everyone, but if I could do something about these cheese sandwiches, it would be worth it," says Robinson. He posted a video on GoFundMe, a fundraising website, asking for donations to pay off student lunch debt. He and his wife also pitched in.
The campaign raised about $700. He took it to the Fort Bend District in Sugar Land, Texas. A few days later, he received a letter in the mail from an elementary school student. It was elaborately decorated with crayon drawings of butterflies and flowers.
The note read : "Thank you for giving money to go and clear my account. My mom really appreciated [it]. My mom is really thankful. She couldn't believe it."
