Topic A
The Cheese Sandwich Punishment
By Richard Marosi
June 23, 2007
Los Angeles Times
CHULA VISTA, Calif. — When too many parents
fell behind on paying for school lunches, the Chula
Vista Elementary School District decided to get
tough . . . on the children.
Most schools across the country have introduced
alternate meals, said Erik Peterson, a spokesman for
the School Nutrition Association, an Alexandria, Va.,
organization for school-nutrition professionals.
They told students with deadbeat parents that they
had one lunch choice: a cheese sandwich. The
sandwich, on whole-wheat bread, came with a clear
message: Tell your parents to pay up or no more
pizza and burgers for you.
Orange County's Capistrano Unified School District
serves crackers with peanut butter or cheese. The Los
Angeles Unified School District gives children half a
sandwich and a piece of fruit. Peanut-butter-and-jelly
sandwiches are a common alternate meal, but not a
very effective one.
Cheese sandwiches and other "alternate meals" have
been added to menus in school districts across the
country as districts try to take a bite out of parents'
lunch debts.
The strategy worked in Chula Vista: Lunch debts in
the district fell from about $300,000 in 2004 to
$67,000 in 2006. Some angry parents say success
came at too high a price, however.
The cheese sandwich, they say, has become a badge
of shame for the children, who get teased about it by
classmates. One student cried when her macaroni and
cheese was replaced with a sandwich. Another girl
hid in a restroom to avoid getting one. Many
sandwiches end up untouched or in the garbage.
Sometimes, children pound them to pieces.
"I think it's an infamous cheese sandwich," said
Frank Luna, whose son, Christopher, just finished the
sixth grade.
A year ago, he said, a cafeteria worker took away
Christopher's pizza and forced him in front of his
friends to pick up a sandwich instead. A similar
incident occurred when Christopher was in the third
grade. "The kid was humiliated," said his father, who
added that he did not realize he owed less than $10.
In Chula Vista, the largest elementary-school district
in the state, administrators said they had to control
the ballooning debt before it forced them to make
cuts in such areas as classroom equipment and books.
"It seemed to be one of the children's very favorite
meals, so that wasn't productive," said Beth Taylor,
nutrition director for the Johnston County School
District in North Carolina, where such sandwiches
were tried. Taylor said switching to vegetable and
fruit trays changed everything.
Districts stress that the alternate meals are a last
resort. They send letters to parents. They hire
collection agencies. Some place stickers on children's
hands or put rubber bands on their wrists as
reminders, Peterson said. But alternate meals get the
best results.
An effective alternate meal has to do two things:
meet federal nutritional standards and flunk child
taste tests. The cheese sandwich, typically served on
untoasted whole-wheat bread, apparently qualifies as
one perfectly healthful stinker of a meal.
The sandwiches' low appeal is one thing. The stigma
attached to them is worse, parents say.
One Chula Vista third-grader, whose mother
requested she not be identified, said students
sometimes ostracize the cheese-sandwich kids.
"Some kids say they're not the kind of kids you want
to hang out with," she said. Another girl said the
cheese sandwich is "for people who don't have
money."
Chula Vista administrators said many parents agree
with their approach and they wouldn't need it if
parents lived up to their responsibilities.
Should children be served alternative meals because their parents have not paid their child’s lunch
bills?