School Lunch Debt and The Need for Universal Programs

Means-tested programs are a drag on society

A recent Washington Post article revealed that children in the Washington D.C. area have over $500,000 in school lunch debt. These students accumulated the debt because they did not have the necessary funds to pay for their meal at lunch. The National School Lunch Program attempts to help the less fortunate students but some are being left behind. To qualify for a free lunch, a family of four must earn less than $32,630 a year. Any more than that, there is a daily fee to eat.

Does it seem crazy that we charge young kids money to eat lunch every day at public schools? It shouldn’t. The United States loves means-tested programs and the National School Lunch Program is the first introduction to a society that makes things much more difficult than they need to be.

The simple and obvious solution to this problem of students going into debt before they are even eligible to vote is to make lunch at all public schools free across America. This would not only eliminate debt, but it would stop lunch shaming, where students are rejected a hot lunch or not served at all. There are some school districts where students are actually forced to work off their debt by completing chores in the cafeteria. The Washington Post explains the concept of lunch shaming:

The high debt burden puts some schools in a gut-wrenching position in which school policy dictates that cafeteria workers are instructed not to give hot food to a child and to offer an “alternate meal” instead, usually a cold cheese sandwich. Lawmakers and anti-poverty activists have dubbed this practice “lunch shaming,” because other students notice what’s going on.

What has been the approach instead of simply providing lunch to every child at no cost to them? GoFundMe campaigns and good Samaritans clearing the debt for students. Sound familiar? Medical procedures and health care for those without insurance is routinely handled the same way.

The Stigma of Means-Tested Programs

In the United States, we do not have many universal programs that seek to lift all Americans. We have Social Security, which guarantees a person a dignified retirement…