Keep schools from throwing indebted children's lunches away.

There is a disturbing new policy being proposed and implemented in schools around the nation that mandates that cafeteria workers throw away the school lunches of children whose families cannot or have not been able pay for their meals and have become indebted to the school. This practice is cruel. For many children school breakfasts and/or lunches are the only full meals they eat every day. Child hunger contributes to lower grades, lower self-esteem, and behavior problems. Forcing children to endure the humiliation and shame at the hands of adults they are supposed to be able to trust will only exacerbate these problems. Rather than punishing the child schools should put forth every effort to find solutions so that no child goes hungry on their watch.