Old North News

A controversial policy regarding lunches is being reconsidered in Davidson County.

"Students that did not have money in their account or money on hand to pay for the cost of their lunch would have their plate taken away" under the new policy, according to Queen City News. The meal ultimately would be thrown away and wasted if the student was unable to pay.

"Understanding that the USDA universally free meals program provided to all students for the previous two years would no longer be in effect, beginning in July 2022 we communicated this shift to parents on several occasions," Davidson County Schools (DCS) officials said in a press release, as reported by Queen City News. "These communications encouraged families to apply for free/reduced meal benefits due to federal school nutrition guidelines that do not allow students to carry a negative balance on their school meal accounts."

An email from Daved Roberts, director of school nutrition for DCS, was sent to cafeteria managers, Queen City News reported.

"High schoolers will no longer be allowed to charge in the cafeteria," the email read in part.

The DCS press release continued: "Schools used the first quarter of this school year to prepare for implementation of the policy that does not allow high school students to carry a negative balance on their meal accounts, which was adopted in 2011. Prior to the universal nutrition benefits provided during the COVID-19 pandemic, the same process was utilized in high schools. If a student is not eligible for benefits, there must be some form of payment each and every day. If the student cannot pay for the meal, since no charges are allowed per federal guidelines, the school must have a financial means to cover the charge. During the first quarter of this school year, schools allowed these charges to be added to the student's school accounts. Unfortunately, these meal charges escalated rapidly, causing concern for school administrators."

The press release offered alternative ways to make sure students without money can get lunch:

"In addition to the free/reduced meal application process, other options exist to assist families that struggle to consistently pay for student meals. The district further welcomes citizen contributions to locally established 'angel funds' which assist in covering meal costs, 'backpack programs' which send non-perishable foods home to food-insecure families over the weekends, and to individual DCS schools which have always provided supplemental snacks to students using funds raised and contributed for this purpose."

Leadership at the school district is rethinking the plan to discard meals:

"Admittedly, discarding food as a means of addressing this complex issue was not the correct approach, and we regret that it was not considered more carefully before being communicated to child nutrition staff. It is not the expectation that meals will be thrown away; prior to the COVID-19 pandemic universally free benefits, our high schools were able to successfully implement this same policy. We are committed to reviewing the school nutrition no-charge policy adopted in 2011, reinstating some of the strategies that enabled us to manage this successfully before, and consider [sic] other recommended best practices for balancing a no-charge policy expectation by USDA with the goal of ensuring all children have the opportunity for access to a healthy meal during the school day."