Spike in unpaid lunch fees causes concern at West Holmes
Food services director Dawn Martin, left, head cook Beth Morris, Diana Miller, Dorothy Leppla, Valeria McFadden, Judy Butler and Jodi Gibbs.
Within every school district there are challenges to overcome. At West Holmes one of those challenges is providing healthy meals at an affordable cost to a large student body. If too many unpaid lunch fees start to accumulate, it can be worrisome for both parents and administrators.
In most years the burden of unpaid lunch fees is not all that high, according to Dawn Martin, food services coordinator for West Holmes.
“A typical year for unpaid lunches is usually around $500 for the school year,” Martin said. “That follows students the whole way through. That rolls over to the next year, so even if they have money on their account, that rolls over to the next year.”
This year is a bit of a different story with more than $6,000 in unpaid lunch fees. Why? Martin is unsure but cites factors like job loss and changes in living situations.
She also reminds parents that applications for free and reduced lunches are available at any time during the school year.
“We have people who lose jobs, and they’ll ask for a free and reduced application,” Martin said. “We have those applications available at any time. They’re on our website, and we send them home with kids. I have mailed them out directly to families. They’re in the summer packets. So there is always lots of information on how to get free and reduced lunches.”
Martin said charges tend to accumulate when families have unexpected difficulties. “Lots of times,” she said, “the charges accumulate when families have hardships. They were full pay, they started to have hardship and then they go on free lunches. Once the lunches become free, they’re still responsible for any of those back charges. So that is one way that charges accumulate. And some people are struggling. Some people are right at that line that maybe they are just a few dollars away from qualifying for the free and reduced program. I can’t round up. I have to go by what they give me. And that’s hard.”
So what happens when a child has unpaid lunch dues out? After two weeks of accumulated charges, the child is given a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as an alternative to the main dish for the day along with all the other required portions of the meal as stipulated by USDA guidelines: fruit, vegetable, dairy and so on to make sure the meal is balanced. This has raised concern among some about children with unpaid lunch charges being singled out.
“They’re not being singled out because every day we already offer a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a yogurt lunch on top of the regular menu items,” Martin said. “What happens is, for instance, I worked over at Lakeville serving lunches, and we had soft tacos that day. Fifteen kids out of the around 85 kids that had eaten that day chose the peanut butter and jelly sandwich because that’s what they wanted. It had nothing to do with charges.”
One misconception about the West Holmes lunch program is that it is funded by tax dollars. However, Martin said the funds operating the kitchens in each of the West Holmes schools comes from the lunch fees that parents pay along with the reimbursements from the free and reduced lunch program.
“We’re kind of like a restaurant in that way,” Martin said. “We fund ourselves. With the lunch fees we support our staff members, our kitchen staff. The lunch fees buy our groceries, and that takes care of feeding our kids on a daily basis.”
She also said 41 percent of the district is enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program.
Because the West Holmes lunch program is self-funded, it is doubly important that nothing ever goes to waste. Very little food is thrown out, and administrators like Martin are always looking for safe ways to find a good home for leftovers.
“We have share bins in our cafeterias,” Martin said. “Any packaged items that go unopened, maybe like milk, a cheese stick, a fruit cup or a granola bar, if a child decides that they don’t want to eat that, we ask them to put that in the share bin before they take their tray up to the dishwasher. Then any child is allowed to go up and take food from that bin. They could be a packer or a buyer. It doesn’t matter. They are able to go up there and take food from that bin at any time that they want. We also use that bin for our after-school programs.”
Martin also described other ways the school helps get food into the hands of its students. “The other thing that I wanted to express, so that people can understand what all it is that we do for these kids, is we also help with the backpack program,” she said.
This program is for children who perhaps don’t have access to meals on the weekend. “There are two churches in our community that I work with, and we get forms sent out to kids who are on low-income programs so that we can offer them a backpack meal. Every Friday a backpack meal goes home with kids in our buildings that need food.”
It’s community support like this that makes the West Holmes food services program one of a kind.
“We have anonymous people, perhaps a parent or grandparent who are paying on their own child’s lunch, and they may say, ‘Here’s $50 more or here’s $10 more. Put that money on someone that may need it.’”
In this way members of the community are donating to the school lunch program, ensuring it is able to continue providing for the children of the community.
“It’s not anything consistent or anything that we get all the time,” Martin said. “It’s just that we have people who are very generous. We appreciate that, and our families are very appreciative of it too.”
For people who would like to get involved in some way, there are lots of ways to help. A donation paid with a child’s lunch fees is always welcome, and area residents also can reach out to Dave Masters or Evelynn Wooten of the Church of God on state Route 39 to learn how to get involved with the backpack program.
For parents with questions and concerns, Martin said the best thing to do is contact the relevant department head at West Holmes, the school board itself or Bill Sterling, the West Holmes superintendent. There also is a school board meeting on Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. at Killbuck Elementary, and anyone is welcome to attend.