# Town Hires Debt Collector To Get Families To Pay For School Lunches



## Leeda.the.Paladin (Dec 9, 2018)

*School officials in Cranston, Rhode Island are getting aggressive in seeking payment from parents in arrears for their kids' meals.*
SAM FULWOOD IIIDEC 9, 2018, 11:02 AM








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CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
Cranston, Rhode Island hired a private debt collector to compel parents to pay up on delinquent lunch money accounts.

Chief Operating Officer Raymond L. Votto, Jr. sent a letter to all parents in the district, informing them the district has hired Transworld Systems, a Delaware-based debt collector, to recover tens of thousands of dollars owed for school lunches

The school district located in suburban Providence, Rhode Island, serves approximately 11,000 students in 24 schools with grades pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. The district reported its 2018-19 budget at $157,579,491. The district allocates approximately $5,572 per pupil for instructional expenses.

Under the existing school lunch policy, parents are encouraged to prepay for lunches or to pay in cash on a daily basis. Children who didn’t pay were given meals and asked to make reimbursement within two days. Households that qualify for reduced or free lunch programs were asked to apply for the program.

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“Once a student has charged five (5) meals (middle\high school $16.25 & elementary $12.50) and no payment has been received, that student will receive a lunch consisting of a sunny butter sandwich, fruit, and milk in place of a hot lunch,” according to the school policy cited on its website.

“This meal maintains the USDA standards surrounding reimbursable meals and will be charged at full price to the student’s account.”

According to WPRI.com, a news website affiliated with a Cranston-area television station which first reported the school lunch story, Votto said the district turned more aggressive in collecting for the meals after failing repeatedly to persuade parents to pay for school lunches that their children had already eaten. Votto said in the letter to parents that the school district wrote off $95,508 in unpaid lunches from September 2016 through June 2018.

Now, some three months into the 2018-19 school year, the district’s unpaid lunch balance is $45,859. “In the past, the school district has attempted to collect unpaid lunch balances without much success,” Votto wrote. “The District lunch program cannot continue to lose revenue.”

Transworld is expected to begin dunning Cranston parents next month. If parents continue not to pay up, the collection agency will report them to national credit bureaus and the delinquencies will show up on their credit reports.


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## Atthatday (Dec 9, 2018)

Ludicrous, but not surprising.


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## Crackers Phinn (Dec 9, 2018)

These people need to quit playing and either fill out the free lunch forms on time or pay what they owe.  This is ridiculous.


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## nysister (Dec 9, 2018)

What's a "sunny butter" sandwich?

It's a shame kids are made to be embarrassed for their parent's lack of productivity. 

If you're not going to pay for your child's lunch then you should send them to school with a meal.


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## dicapr (Dec 9, 2018)

nysister said:


> What's a "sunny butter" sandwich?
> 
> It's a shame kids are made to be embarrassed for their parent's lack of productivity.
> 
> If you're not going to pay for your child's lunch then you should send them to school with a meal.



Had to google it. It is a sunflower butter sandwich instead of peanut butter.  I guess that is to avoid any peanut allergies.


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## Brwnbeauti (Dec 9, 2018)

Crackers Phinn said:


> These people need to quit playing and either fill out the free lunch forms on time or pay what they owe.  This is ridiculous.


Idk why, but parents are too proud to fill out the financial papers.


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## nysister (Dec 9, 2018)

dicapr said:


> Had to google it. It is a sunflower butter sandwich instead of peanut butter.  I guess that is to avoid any peanut allergies.



Interesting, thanks!


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## Theresamonet (Dec 10, 2018)

If they can’t afford to pay, why not just fill out the form? I don’t see a problem with this. Pay for your children to eat lunch.



dicapr said:


> Had to google it. It is a sunflower butter sandwich instead of peanut butter.  I guess that is to avoid any peanut allergies.



Awww, so they don’t give the graham cracker peanut butter and jelly sandwiches anymore? I used to love when they served these with some cold milk. Lol


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## momi (Dec 10, 2018)

I bet at least 75% of these parents can afford the lunch but would just rather not pay. 

People tend to buy what they want and beg for what they need.


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## MzRhonda (Dec 10, 2018)

momi said:


> I bet at least 75% of these parents can afford the lunch but would just rather not pay.
> 
> *People tend to buy what they want and beg for what they need.*



This!


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## discodumpling (Dec 10, 2018)

We have FREE lunch for all NYC public school students and still folks wont fill out the ppwrk!


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## sarumoki (Dec 10, 2018)

discodumpling said:


> We have FREE lunch for all NYC public school students and still folks wont fill out the ppwrk!


Really? When did that become a thing?


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## discodumpling (Dec 10, 2018)

sarumoki said:


> Really? When did that become a thing?


I believe the new policy took effect in September 2017. 
Family income info is still necessary cause that's a factor in how dollars are allocated.


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## nysister (Dec 10, 2018)

Theresamonet said:


> If they can’t afford to pay, why not just fill out the form? I don’t see a problem with this. Pay for your children to eat lunch.
> 
> 
> 
> Awww, so they don’t give the graham cracker peanut butter and jelly sandwiches anymore? I used to love when they served these with some cold milk. Lol



Those we're so good!

Welches has "Graham Slam", which looks the same. I wonder how it tastes.


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## Theresamonet (Dec 10, 2018)

nysister said:


> Those we're so good!
> 
> Welches has "Graham Slam", which looks the same. I wonder how it tastes.



I saw that when I was googling for a picture of the sandwich. I got all excited, but it turns out that they’re discontinued.


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## nysister (Dec 11, 2018)

Theresamonet said:


> I saw that when I was googling for a picture of the sandwich. I got all excited, but it turns out that they’re discontinued.



Nooooo! Agh I wish someone would bring those back. (Originals)


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## GinnyP (Dec 15, 2018)

Brwnbeauti said:


> Idk why, but parents are too proud to fill out the financial papers.


It’s sad but half of these kids are raising themselves.  So sad!  Some kids don’t eat at home.  School is the only place they get to eat. This is a reality......no one is reporting on how many kids and families are homeless.


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## SoopremeBeing (Dec 17, 2018)

My old elementary school cut us off after the 4th “charged” lunch.


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## felic1 (Jan 8, 2019)

I kept up with my sons school lunch fees. I went to the office and paid for him to eat in the cafeteria. This just sounds crazy but some people don't cooperate.


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## naturalgyrl5199 (Jul 25, 2021)

My school district is going 100% free lunch for the whole county. 
A couple schools were 100% free for a while. Mostly the black schools as someone was smart enough to write a grant. My daughter's 50/50 diverse school  piggy backed off the grant and she was given free lunch and breakfast despite us being over income. 

Its a big deal and its picking up nation-wide because this town's dirty secret about being a BLUE liberal town but very segregated was exposed. We have some progressive, young white folk (Pro-Bernie) who recently won commission seats who supported older black commissioners to expose the lies. Our county, the capital of FL has a huge economic and health care gap between blacks and whites that people have been tracking and using statistics and big data to really lay it out (cause they were gaslighting us about "gaps" before. But when the data about who's living and dying more in specific zip codes were laid out with Facts on Facts...they had to do and say SOMETHING. Cause the young white folks asked the older white folks (well why is it in your zip codes, black babies die more than in other zip codes?) 
Anyhoo, so this is a BIG deal in my town. We are surrounded on all sides by red/rural counties so we will see if they follow suit.


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## winterinatl (Jul 25, 2021)

My school was 100% free lunch school. Everyone just gets free lunch and breakfast, and I don’t think they all have to fill out the frl forms. We also wrote a fresh fruit and veggie grant so kids got a snack each day of a variety of fruit and veggies, exposing them to new things. There was a little info card the teacher reviewed and everything. It was nice not having to worry about if our students had “bills” with the lunch lady.

I know some families may not have prioritized kids lunches over other household wants and needs but that’s not the kids fault. I’d rather provide it especially if kids lunch is in the lineup fit something to get cut from the budget  And there is a pride issue in filling out forms. Plus in high school in GA there was some sort of indicator that they were all FRL and them prideful things would rather skip lunch or beg money than go in the FRL line.

i wonder how many of these are BIPOC families. We got enough ways our credit gets ruined. I think this is overkill.


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## naturalgyrl5199 (Jul 26, 2021)

winterinatl said:


> My school was 100% free lunch school. Everyone just gets free lunch and breakfast, and I don’t think they all have to fill out the frl forms. We also wrote a fresh fruit and veggie grant so kids got a snack each day of a variety of fruit and veggies, exposing them to new things. There was a little info card the teacher reviewed and everything. It was nice not having to worry about if our students had “bills” with the lunch lady.
> 
> I know some families may not have prioritized kids lunches over other household wants and needs but that’s not the kids fault. I’d rather provide it especially if kids lunch is in the lineup fit something to get cut from the budget  *And there is a pride issue in filling out forms*. Plus in high school in GA there was some sort of indicator that they were all FRL and them prideful things would *rather skip lunch or beg money *than go in the FRL line.
> 
> *i wonder how many of these are BIPOC families. *We got enough ways our credit gets ruined. I think this is overkill.


Oh the bolded can be a thread.

IME, they are mostly poor (low to middle low income) whites refusing to fill out forms. 
Ironically, even though lunch is free at my daughter's school, on observation at the school (again, its not Title 1 or majority low income), the so called "hard working white parents" send their kids lunch anyway. Even the ones I KNOW are using federal programs, or I know their families are really low income. Most POC will fill out the forms because its one less thing they have to worry about. POC and immigrant families do not carry that type of pride IME. Because it makes sense in cash-strapped households but white folk are a whole nother species. 
When I first started working for the public health nutrition program i'm working for in 2007, majority of people were white. Blacks were always consistently second but lower than whites by 5 or so percentage points, then you had spanish speaking folk and other in the remaining 3-4%. After the Obama years, all of a sudden, whites started enrolling LESS, even though many of their small businesses were folding in the economic recession we had thanks to the housing bubble burst. Believe it or not, many were simply federally eligible, because despite being business owners, their actual profits made them eligible based on Federal definitions of poverty. But they didn't want to be told they were poor and a growing attitude of Obama being a socialist pushed people who could benefit from a program that THEY themselves paid into, from enrolling. Even when their child's pediatrician was telling them their child was falling off the growth chart and needed to eat more. Their pride refused. I had ONE white family come across my door step needing help because his business wasn't doing good...but he had ALWAYS been eligible because they never made BIG money. Just made enough not to have to work for anyone and to stay afloat. He wasn't even aware the Feds considered his income LOW. But he said he wasn't gonna come either way. But when I told him his skin and bones daughter was falling off the growth chart, he was happy to have help. I told him he paid into the program for decades, makes sense that he gets something back. These kind of programs are literally no different from Social Security which these types demand. 

ALSO-FRL kids are usually in the same line. In FL its law.


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