EDMONDS — After two weeks of intense debate, Edmonds school administrators have developed a plan for dealing with kids who want to buy lunch but don’t have money.
Beginning Oct. 1, students will be able to charge $15 worth of food to a tab their parents must pay. After that, if they want lunch but don’t bring money, elementary students will receive an “emergency meal” consisting of a cold cheese sandwich, milk and fruit in a sack. Middle and high school students will get just two free emergency meals. After that, they can purchase them for a dollar.
District officials believe the plan is fiscally responsible and won’t embarrass kids as much as the previous plan, which involved throwing away trays of hot food from kids whose parents owed money and giving them a cheese sandwich with no drink.
“Anything to minimize, if not eliminate, embarrassment is the goal in every building,” spokeswoman Debbie Jakala said.
Barbara Burley was thrilled to learn of the new plan Thursday evening. A cafeteria cashier at Hazelwood Elementary in Lynnwood, Burley spoke out against the previous plan, sparking a public outcry. The district then suspended the previous plan on Sept. 11, just days after it began.
She’s especially enthused about the district’s decision to put elementary school cashiers at the front of the lunch line. This should eliminate the need to throw away food.
“The plan they had at the beginning of the year, I’m sorry, but it sucked,” said Burley, 60. “I don’t know how else to put it. It was wrong. It humiliated kids. … This plan would allow me to have a prepacked brown bagged lunch to hand to the child — and that’s only in front of three or four kids at the front of the line. To me, that’s doable.”
Because of complicated cafeteria layouts and federal rules, middle and high school cashiers will remain at the end of the lunch line, Jakala said. However, students will be able to look up their lunch balance on a computer before going through the lunch line. Additionally, once middle and high school students reach the $15 lunch debt mark, school staff will meet with them to discuss the problem and help them apply for assistance, if needed, Jakala said.
“A lot of thought and input from our very community has gone into this,” Jakala said. “This plan is a reflection of the input we’ve received.”
As has been the case in the past, district administrators — not the school board — decided on the new plan.
Today the district plans to mail about 15,000 letters to families explaining the changes. The district is also sending home forms that enable parents to decide whether their children can charge any food to a tab they must pay.
Ron Martinez, president of the district’s PTSA, believes district administrators listened to parents like him and crafted a good plan.
“It’s a lot better than what we had,” he said. “They’re not making the kids suffer for what the parents have done. That’s what I didn’t like about the old plan.”
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
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