Story Archive

It’s a Shame

When Warwick, R.I., school officials announced that students who hadn’t paid their lunch debts would get sunflower-seed butter and jelly sandwiches instead of hot meals, restaurateur Angelica Penta was upset. “To me, a sunbutter and jelly sandwich is lunch shaming, because you’re basically telling all the other kids that you can’t afford lunch and you don’t have any lunch money,” she said. Penta offered to donate $4,000 toward students’ lunch debts, but the district, she said, turned her away. “They basically said they couldn’t take my check because people would get upset if their child’s lunch was being paid for.” But officials had a different explanation: they weren’t willing to pick and choose which students would benefit from the donation, and Penta had refused to do the choosing. Penta invited parents to ask for her help directly, but after the issue got media attention, yogurt company Chobani said it would donate $77,000 to cover all the debts. (AC/Washington Post, WPRI Providence) ...Food or fairness: which should a school district choose?