https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/20/us/pennsylvania-school-lunch-debt-trnd
Unless this is happening again, this story is from 2019. Still bad, just not recent
this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
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A Boring Dystopia
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I don't think there's any other country in the world that has such policies.
My wife runs a school kitchen, a big school, 2k+ high schoolers and almost 20 staff. Her pay is actually terrible, but the job has good medical insurance and I'm self employed with no benefits so she's been sticking with it. Collecting debt is part of her job. They never withhold a basic meal (no extras if they have unpaid debt) but that meal gets added to their debt.
They don't threaten anything legal like in this story, but they will not give you your diploma or transfer your credits if you haven't paid your debt in full. We're in Ohio.
If every American learned what citizens in other 1st world countries have that we don't, there would be a revolution tomorrow.
A lot of them know but choose to look away because "mUh FrEeDoM"
"Fuck free healthcare, education, food quality standards, safety regulations,y right to own guns is more important than all that, and fuck them (school shooting) kids"
Signed -america's "patriots"
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Not wanting to feed children doesn’t seem very pro-life.
Grew up with lunch debt as a kid and that headline boils my blood in ways I probably shouldn't say out loud.
Unfortunately nothing new. I remember as a kid that if you didn’t have money in your lunch account, your lunch was taken away and if you were lucky they’d have a peanut butter sandwich for you.
If you were in a negative balance, such as if your parents were unable to pay, then you’d also be restricted from certain activities and pressured to make your parents pay what was owed.
I’m from this region of Pennsylvania. Abuse and bullying is protected by the culture of this region. The sheriff’s office has done mass murders against strikers in the coal fields. 1860’s I believe. This guy stepped down. But his sentiment carries far in the community. It’s a bigoted hate filled hole.
A literal gun cult is financing far right radicals into local politics. A hate group is trying to force schools to out children who say they are gay. And YouTube protects their account where they post hours of hate content.
I worked with the president of the group before. He was fired from his job because he was accused of stealing $15,000.
The same as debtors prison, how is that supposed to fix anything? Accomplishes literally nothing other than punishing people for being poor.
how about you start punishing companies for not paying people a livable wage?
That picture of the food is a damn feast compared to what actually gets served.