Two Rhode Island districts turn to collection agencies to collect school lunch debts

Two Rhode Island school districts have turned to collection agencies this year to pursue tens of thousands of dollars in school lunch debt, reflecting the lengths some districts are going to as they try to cover meal costs while avoiding “lunch shaming.”

Earlier this month, the school committee in suburban Cumberland voted to hire F.H. Cann & Associates Inc. to try to track down $47,000 in school lunch debt. And the city of Cranston began using Transworld Systems Inc. in January to go after school lunch debt that had approached $90,000.

But neither of those decisions received as much media attention as Warwick schools, which made national headlines earlier this year for giving sunflower-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, instead of hot meals, to students whose families owned lunch money. Public outcry over lunch shaming prompted the Chobani yogurt company to donate more than $47,000 to cover Warwick school meals, and the district revised its policy.

“I need the yogurt guy to come up to Cumberland, or maybe CVS will pay the bill,” Cumberland School Committee Chair Paul DiModica said this week.

Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/rhode-island/2019/06/26/two-rhode-island-districts-turn-collection-agencies-collect-school-lunch-debts/kIWgmICJjCagezLF8SVHHN/story.html