Southwest WA Students Catch A Break On School Lunch Debt

By Cooper Banks

It’s good news for families in Battleground, Washington.

All school lunch debt has been wiped out, thanks to a large influx of cash from an anonymous donor.

A news release from the district says it received $40,000 from the donor through the Morgan Stanley Gift Fund.

It means when kids return to school there in Battlground, of them will have ANY kind of school lunch debt on their accounts.

Here are some more details from the news release we received from Battleground Schools;

Two donations (including $800 from the Battle Ground Education Foundation, or BGeF) cover active student lunch debt for nearly 1,900 students in the district. The donation does not, however, cover debts that have already been sent to collections.

Twice each year, any student account owing more than $100 goes to collections and comes off the active debt amount.  Students who participate in the Free and Reduced meals program will be the first to have any balances paid, followed by accounts on which parents have been making regular payments on the balance owed.

Student lunch debt is a relatively new concept.

Before federal policy changed a few years ago in an effort to prevent “lunch shaming,” students who had a negative account balance were given a cheese sandwich as an alternative meal.

Today, all students are given the same nutritious meal, regardless of their account balance.

BGeF president Colleen O’Neal says the organization has been helping to pay for thousands of dollars in student lunch debt balances for several years through their “Kids in Need” campaign efforts, but the timing of this most recent donation is especially welcome.

“I was thrilled, because it’s one less thing for our families to have to worry about right now,” O’Neal said. “The more we can take off their plates, the better.”

Although BGPS regularly receives contributions of a few hundred or even a thousand dollars at a time to go towards student lunch debt, the $40,000 donation is exceptionally generous.

“This is huge, and is really going to be helpful right now,” Hayden said. “Especially at this time when a lot of parents are probably wondering how they’re going to pay their next mortgage or utilities, or are having to temporarily shut down their businesses.”