The Pennsylvania Cancel Lunch Debt Coalition is a group of parents, teachers, students, community members, and more who have stepped forward to erase the growing burden of debt many families statewide are facing.
Eight states have made school lunches free for students – Pennsylvania is not one of them. The federal government does run a free lunch program, but many families make too much annually to qualify and are still unable to afford school lunches every day.
There are kids who have been singled out in front of their peers or who have faced the threat of not going on school trips or walking at graduation for owing money. There was even a district in Northeastern PA that sent letters in 2019 warning that parents must pay off their students’ lunch debt or they would be sent to Dependency Court.
“So there’s a lot of stigma and shame that goes with going into debt, and so then a lot of kids alternatively choose to not go to lunch, not eat when at lunch, etc. So, lunch debt is just putting kids into debt for not being able to afford to eat while at school.”
That’s Elizabeth Lester-Abdalla, a member of the Coalition. She notes studies that show better classroom performance when students are well-fed.
“A kid who is hungry in school might then be acting out, may not then be able to focus in school, and so that affects teachers. We talk to teachers who stack snacks in their classroom because they know when their kids haven’t eaten, and they care about that. But again, that’s something that’s coming out of their own salary.”
The Coalition was able to get the lunch debt amounts for every district statewide. Their current focus is on the Nazareth Area School District, which has around $5,500 in student debt.
This is a manageable amount, says Lester-Abdalla, especially compared to the neighboring Bethlehem Area School District’s debt, which currently exceeds $200,000.
Nazareth’s lunch debt illustrates a fundamental point that the Coalition is pushing.
“Nazareth is a, relatively speaking, fairly affluent district, and yet they still have kids who are in debt for needing to eat. So I think it highlights that this affects families across our state in rural communities and suburban communities and urban communities. It affects a lot of different people.”
Members of the Coalition attended a recent Nazareth school board meeting to offer to pay off the existing debt. Lester-Abdalla says they had a positive conversation with administration members after the meeting and are now working to finalize the debt cancellation.
While grocery stores or other organizations will sometimes purchase debt as a charitable contribution to the community, that’s not exactly the goal of the Pennsylvania Cancel Lunch Debt Coalition. Their goal is systemic change.
“I don’t think many people realize that this is an issue. I also know that we don’t do a good job in our society of talking about debt and destigmatizing debt and supporting those with debt. So we want to highlight that issue and we also want a systemic change because, unfortunately, when a grocery store comes in and wipes off that debt, it’s wonderful for the moment, but then that debt can just accrue until we have a permanent fix. Universal meals without debt cancellation does nothing to address the debt.”
The Coalition has members statewide who are working to either find ways to pay off districts’ school lunch debt or have serious conversations with administrations about solutions.
Additionally, there are ways for everyone to help, like calling state legislators and urging them to take action on the growing school debt.
Everyone is invited to get involved in the movement by reaching out to nolunchdebt@gmail.com, or by visiting nolunchdebt.org.
