Edmonds schools, parents debate a fair meal deal

Published 10:56 pm Wednesday, September 17, 2008

LYNNWOOD — The days of unlimited IOUs for kids without lunch money are coming to an end in Edmonds schools.

By the end of the week, district officials plan to announce a new plan to feed kids who come to school without lunch or the money to pay for it. Administrators are working out the details, but they are adamant that the new plan won’t waste food or embarrass kids.

In the midst of public scrutiny, the Edmonds School District suspended its policy of giving students a packaged cheese sandwich with no drink last week, just days after the plan was put in place. Cafeteria workers were supposed to throw away hot lunches from kids whose parents owed more than $10 in back lunch fees and give them a sandwich of cheddar on wholegrain bread instead. Since the policy was suspended, kids have been able to charge whatever they want to a tab that the parents are supposed to pay.

Around 60 parents, cafeteria workers and community leaders debated ideas for a new plan at a meeting with administrators Wednesday night at district headquarters in Lynnwood.

“My son’s part of the free lunch program, and on the first day of school he had his tray thrown out and was embarrassed in front of all the kids,” said Mindy McConnell, the mom of a fifth-grader. “He came home crying. He was devastated.”

She asked administrators to let parents decide if their children can charge second or third helpings to their parents’ tabs, as she says her son has done.

Assistant Superintendent Marla Miller agreed that parents should have the power to limit the number of meals their children can charge.

With the cost of food and fuel rising, district officials decided to stop allowing students to run up unlimited lunch debts at the start of this school year. The goal was to help recoup $207,763 in parent lunch fee debt carried over from last school year. As of Tuesday, around $50,000 had been returned, Miller said.

Parents differed on how they thought the district should deal with parents who owe money. Some advised the district to hire a collection agency, while others thought teachers or school counselors should reach out to parents about their debt.

Some parents wanted students who owed money to receive a more filling meal than a cheese sandwich, while others thought even a cheese sandwich may be too much for students who repeatedly try to charge their lunch.

“A cheese sandwich and milk is not a bad lunch,” said Gary Ottman, a member of the district’s Citizens Planning Commission. “I used to exist on that when I was going to school.”

One of the few things everyone at the meeting agreed on is that throwing out food is a bad policy.

“To have your food thrown away, that kind of could be embarrassing to people,” Lynnwood High School senior Krista Angell said. “I think they should get some milk because we don’t want kids to get dehydrated, even though I find the milk icky because it’s in bags and I think it tastes like plastic.”

Earlier in the day, administrators fielded suggestions from cafeteria workers and principals during separate meetings. Around 50 cafeteria workers representing every school in the district attended the first meeting, said district spokeswoman Debbie Jakala. Cafeteria workers made suggestions about how kids owing money should be routed through the lunch line and how the “emergency lunch” should be packaged.

Some cafeteria workers suggested placing emergency lunches, such as a cheese sandwich and milk, in a brown paper bag, so kids receiving them would blend in with students who packed their lunch and wouldn’t be as embarrassed.

“Our goal is to make sure that we have a process that works, doesn’t embarrass kids, doesn’t throw away food and is fiscally responsible,” Miller said.

As a result of the feedback, the district will likely place cashiers at the head of the lunch line in elementary schools to eliminate the need to trash food, Miller said.

The cashiers have been at the end of school lunch lines in order to meet a federal law requiring them to look over a child’s meal to make sure it’s nutritionally balanced. In the future, the person in charge of hot lunch may check to make sure meals meet federal standards.