Anoka-Hennepin School District has hired a collection agency for its unpaid lunch debt totaling $160,000, reports The Daily Meal.
According to the director of the district’s child-nutrition program, Noah Atlas, the accrued debt was created by only 1 percent of students—370 students out of the district’s 38,000. The collection agency will start contacting indebted families in January.
“It's really not to punish anyone in particular,” Atlas said. “It's really just to be fiscally responsible with the program so that it will be there for everyone.”
Schools across the country are seeking ways to resolve their rising school-lunch debt. Recently, Missouri-based Columbus Public Schools proposed an “alternate meal” of a cheese sandwich, an apple and water for indebted students, which was later scrapped after parent backlash, as reported by FoodService Director.
According to CPS officials, the policy was a way to hold parents accountable when school lunch debt went unpaid—the district’s balance went as high as $130,000 in July.
Read Anoka-Hennepin School District’s full story at The Daily Meal.