Is a Cheese Sandwich Torture?

Apparently, due to the bad economy, some schools are giving cheese sandwiches to students who have 'charged' too many school lunches without paying the tab. Here's the article.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A cold cheese sandwich, fruit and a milk carton might not seem like much of a meal — but that's what's on the menu for students in New Mexico's largest school district without their lunch money. Faced with mounting unpaid lunch charges in the economic downturn, Albuquerque Public Schools last month instituted a "cheese sandwich policy," serving the alternative meals to children whose parents are supposed to be able to pay for some or all of their regular meals but fail to pick up the tab.

Such policies have become a necessity for schools seeking to keep budgets in the black while ensuring children don't go hungry. School districts including those in Chula Vista, Calif.; Hillsborough County, Fla.; and Lynnwood, Wash.; have also taken to serving cheese sandwiches to children with delinquent lunch accounts. Critics argue the cold meals are a form of punishment for children whose parents can't afford to pay. Parents who qualify for free meals are not affected.

"We've heard stories from moms coming in saying their child was pulled out of the lunch line and given a cheese sandwich," said Nancy Pope, director of the New Mexico Collaborative to End Hunger. "One woman said her daughter never wants to go back to school."

Some Albuquerque parents have tearfully pleaded with school board members to stop singling out their children because they're poor, while others have flooded talk radio shows thanking the district for imposing a policy that commands parental responsibility.

Second-grader Danessa Vigil said she will never eat sliced cheese again. She had to eat cheese sandwiches because her mother couldn't afford to give her lunch money while her application for free lunch was being processed. "Every time I eat it, it makes me feel like I want to throw up," the 7-year-old said. Her mother, Darlene Vigil, said there are days she can't spare lunch money for her two daughters. "Some parents don't have even $1 sometimes," the 27-year-old single mother said. "If they do, it's for something else, like milk at home. There are some families that just don't have it and that's the reason they're not paying."

Albuquerque Public Schools students receive a cheese sandwich in lieu of a hot meal if they have exceeded a set amount of meals charged to their account, ranging from two at high schools to 10 at elementary schools. The schools' Web site warns: "Once the charging limit is met, students will be offered an alternate meal consisting of a cheese sandwich and a beverage."
The School Nutrition Association recently surveyed nutrition directors from 38 states and found more than half of school districts have seen an increase in the number of students charging meals, while 79 percent saw an increase in the number of free lunches served over the last year.

In New Mexico, nearly 204,000 low-income students — about three-fifths of public school students — received free or reduced-price lunches at the beginning of the school year, according to the state Public Education Department.
"What you are seeing is families struggling and having a really hard time, and school districts are struggling as well," said Crystal FitzSimons of the national Food Research and Action Center.

In Albuquerque, unpaid lunch charges hovered around $55,000 in 2006. That jumped to $130,000 at the end of the 2007-08 school year. It was $140,000 through the first five months of this school year. Charges were on pace to reach $300,000 by the end of the year. Mary Swift, director of Albuquerque's food and nutrition services, said her department had no way to absorb that debt as it had in the past. "We can't use any federal lunch program money to pay what they call bad debt. It has to come out of the general budget and of course that takes it from some other department," Swift said. With the new policy, the school district has collected just over $50,000 from parents since the beginning of the year. It also identified 2,000 students eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunches, and more children in the lunch program means more federal dollars for the district.
School officials said the policy was under consideration for some time and parents were notified last fall. Families with unpaid charges are reminded with an automated phone call each night and notes are sent home with children once a week.

Swift added that the cheese sandwiches — about 80 of the 46,000 meals the district serves daily — can be considered a "courtesy meal," rather than an alternate meal. Some districts, she noted, don't allow children without money to eat anything.
Albuquerque Public Schools "has historically gone above and beyond as far as treating children with dignity and respect and trying to do what's best with for the child and I think this is just another example," Swift said.

This story hit home for me for a couple of reasons. The first is the students feeling singled out when they got the cheese sandwich meal. But I don't blame the school, I blame the parents. I remember one time, in first grade, when my mother forgot to give me lunch money (this was the bio-mom, not my mommy, who always made my lunch, a nutritious, delicious lunch that sometimes involved thermoses filled with surprises like ice cream). When I told the lunch lady I had no money, she gave me a lunch 'on credit'. That was so humiliating to me that I would have rather not eaten lunch that day and I had a hard time looking at the lunch lady after that. it wasn't because of the credited lunch that I was humiliated though, it was knowing my mother had forgotten me. (It wasn't the first, nor the last time.) If the parents can't afford a school lunch, they need to talk to their kids about the economic realities of their lives. If the kids are told the truth, maybe the cheese sandwich wouldn't be quite so humiliating. And when three of your five classmates is already getting the free lunch, I don't think your peers have much to judge you on. A cheese sandwich, carton of milk and piece of fruit is inexpensive and nutritional.

Secondly, the idea that having to eat a cheese sandwich is a punishment makes me laugh. First of all the notion that the school is still feeding these children is awesome. Most schools would just stop feeding them, not out of cruelty but out of economic necessity. I would be grateful for the generosity in a time of need, and I would teach my children about gratitude. But I kind of understand why some kids would consider a cheese sandwich to be a form of torture. When I was growing up, we had a rule. You had to try whatever Mom made for dinner. Just try it. If you truly didn't like it after you gave it a try, you could make yourself a cold cheese sandwich. I usually ate my dinner, no matter what because I HATE cold cheese sandwiches. Now I love grilled cheese and cheese on a burger and cheese on my nachos, but the thought of a slice of cold cheese between two slices of white bread makes me shudder with horror. The though of it being processed, plastic wrapped American cheese makes it worse. And even though I am a great condiment lover, no mayo or mustard can help. Some sliced ham could change the situation but we weren't offered that option nor a peanut butter escape route. Eat what's on you plate or make a cold cheese sandwich, those were our choices. (It's funny to me that I almost always chose to eat what was on my plate while my brother frequently picked the sandwich. Which is probably why he was a very skinny child while I was a very chubby one... he was a much pickier eater.)

So I get the whole 'don't like cheese sandwiches' thing. But again, explain it to your children, and they will get it. Just like I got it when I couldn't have the white Nike's with the red swoop I wanted and had to settle for the light green Nike's with the dark green swoop that were on clearance at the discount store. Don't keep your child out of the loop on economic reality, but give them the tools to understand it and cope with it. They will be better adults with a greater understanding of fiscal matters.

Kids, eat the cheese sandwich or pray that there is some other kid around who just loves cheese sandwiches and is willing to trade his lunch for yours. And just know, that one day you will be an adult and if you don't want to, you will never have to eat a cold cheese sandwich again. Ever.