By Chris Levister

A growing number of school districts including San Bernardino and Riverside are serving students a cheese sandwich or "alternate meal" if parents don't pay their kids lunch tab on time.

The Los Angeles Times told of the strategy in the San Diego County Chula Vista Elementary School District where kids whose parents are in arrears get just one choice for lunch: a plain cheese sandwich on wheat bread. 

"The goal is to get parents to pay up and on time," says Dennis Doyle, assistant superintendent. "The kids usually go home and complain about the food."

The strategy worked, the largest elementary school district in the state used the cheese sandwich to cut a $300,000 school lunch debt to $67,000.

"We tried everything from collection agencies, threatening letters and all sorts of strategies to get parents to pay up," said Doyle, whose district serves about 18,000 meals daily, including as many as 400 alternate meals.

The Times story touched off a national frenzy of calls and letters from angry and concerned parents, educators and mental health officials.

The cheese sandwich many say has become a badge of shame for the children who get teased about it by their classmates. The sandwiches' low taste appeal is one thing. The stigma attached to them is worse, parents say.

"Why humiliate the child. It's not necessarily their fault that the parent has not paid," said Ruth Trunnell, a Riverside nutritionist. 

It turns out the alternate meal pay up scheme is widespread and growing as financially strapped districts struggle to take a bite out of parent's lunch debts.

In California several other districts have quietly resorted to serving crackers with peanut butter or cheese or a half a sandwich and some fruit.

"We've got a very different set of circumstances here in San Bernardino," says Linda Hill, director of communications at San Bernardino City Unified Schools. More than 90 percent of the district's students receive free or reduced-price lunches under the National School Lunch Program.

Hill says while the district has no set policy governing parental lunch debt, students ineligible for free lunch who come to school without lunch money are served regular meals for two days and given a note informing the parent of unpaid tabs.

"On the third day students are served a peanut butter sandwich, a piece of fruit and a carton of milk. A second note is sent home with the student asking parents to pay." The district will not refuse food to any child, insists Hill. She said students with nut allergies are served regular meals. 

Riverside school officials have a similar approach. While the district has fewer students who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, students with unpaid lunch tabs are served alternate meals. Usually a sandwich and fruit, according to a spokeswoman for Gina Martin, director of county Nutrition Services.

Orange County's Capistrano Unified School District serves crackers with peanut butter or cheese. The Los Angeles Unified School District gives children with parental debt half a sandwich and a piece of fruit.

A North Carolina School District switched to vegetable and fruit trays when peanut and jelly sandwiches turned out to be children's favorite meals. With the steamed veggie and fruit lunch, debt dropped to nothing," she said.  

Former Chula Vista parents Richard and Gloria Reza say their children were ridiculed and excluded after a $9.00 charge went unpaid.

"That's the problem with alternate meals. Students take the heat when parents don't pay. Children are teased for eating a ‘poor man's' lunch. Kids don't like cheese sandwiches. They want pizza, hot dogs and burgers. Cheese sandwich kids stick out like a sore thumb. It's like a ‘badge of shame,' said Gloria.

The Reza's say parents don't always know when they've fallen behind. The alternate meal kicks in when a child's tab reaches $5. With skyrocketing gas, food and housing prices it's a struggle for many low-income parents to pay the reduced price of $2.00 for lunch. Richard a janitor who earns minimum wage says some weeks it's a toss up between buying gasoline and paying for the children's lunch. 

Gloria says the family fell behind several times. "The children would come home screaming.  It was very disturbing.  It wasn't their fault," said Reza.

She admits the unhappy meals were a strong incentive. "We paid up fast."

Schools that serve alternate meals defend the policy. "It works." says Chula Vista's Doyle. There are multiple reasons why parents don't pay lunch tabs on time. We go to great lengths to work with children and families. We think we've done the best we can under the circumstances."

The state education department encourages districts to have a policy in place for what happens when lunch money runs out and to communicate it well, so no one is surprised.