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Wake County will continue to cover the meal costs of students who’ve run out of money for their school meals.
tlong@newsobserver.com
Despite rising six-figure debt, Wake County will continue to provide students with regular school lunches even when they’ve run out of money to pay for them.
The Wake County school board rejected Tuesday resuming the practice of serving an alternative meal of only fruits, vegetables and water to students who’ve run out of meal money. School administrators had made the request because the student meal debt has risen to $152,170 since the district began using donations to cover unpaid meal costs.
“The money does have to come from somewhere,” said school board member Lynn Edmonds. “But this is a basic human right, and we should find the money, as hard as that will be.”
Administrators will now have to figure out a way to cover the meal debt. School nutrition programs are supposed to, by law, be financially self-supporting.
Avoiding shaming students during lunch
Students are expected to pay for their lunch unless they qualify for a federally subsidized school meal or attend a school that serves free meals to all students.
Under Wake’s policy — which has been waived for the last 16 months — students can have up to three days of unpaid meal debt before they’re only served the meal of fruits and vegetables.
In the 2023-24 school year, Wake served 8,000 alternative meals of only fruits and vegetables to students who were out of meal money.
Cafeteria managers are supposed to talk to students in private when they run out of money. But school board members have said that some students have been publicly embarrassed by having their meals taken away.
Concerns about the practice led Wake to create a systemwide Angel Fund. The district fund helps supplement schools that have little or no money in their own Angel Fund to cover unpaid meal costs.
Wake received so many donations that in September 2024 it announced it was suspending the policy of not serving the regular meal to students who didn’t have lunch money.
“We directed staff not to follow the current policy to avoid what some were calling the meal of shame,” said board member Chris Heagarty.
Families not paying who can afford it?
But school administrators said the Angel Fund donations from individuals and groups such as the AJ Fletcher Foundation, For Children Partners and BAPS Charities haven’t been consistent enough to keep up with the demand for unpaid meal costs.
Wake says the current year-to-date unpaid meal balance is $152,170 even after collecting $87,451 from the Angel Fund. It could reach $255,733 by the end of the school year if Wake continues to absorb the meal debt.
Questions were raised Tuesday about whether some families who could afford to pay the meals were taking advantage of the Angel Fund’s generosity. School board chair Tyler Swanson cautioned against reading into the motives of people who aren’t paying their meal debt.
“Whether someone is taking advantage of it or is not taking advantage of it, it’s putting us in a fiscal position where by not enforcing the policy, that number is going to continue to grow,” said Superintendent Robert Taylor. “We want the board to have a good, clear understanding of what the implications are.”
School meals a ‘basic human right’
Administrators had recommended resuming the practice of serving only fruits and vegetables to people who had three days of meal debt starting on Feb. 17.
The board did not take a formal vote on the recommendation, but multiple board members said they didn’t think that meal would be enough to meet the needs of students.
“I don’t see how kids can survive on vegetables and water,” said board member Cheryl Caulfield.
Edmonds, the board member, reiterated that access to school meals are a “basic human right.”
“I really don’t care who’s trying to eat at school,” Edmonds said. “If we’ve got kids that want a school meal, they should get one.”
Donate to angel fund
Go to https://www.wcpss.net/p/~board/family-resources/post/donations-and-angel-fund for information on how to donate to the Wake County school system’s Angel Fund.
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T. Keung Hui
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