Alternative school lunches leave a bitter taste

CHULA VISTA, Calif. — When too many parents fell behind on paying for school lunches, the Chula Vista Elementary School District decided to get tough ... on the children.

They told students with deadbeat parents that they had one lunch choice: a cheese sandwich.

The sandwich, on whole-wheat bread, came with a clear message: Tell your parents to pay up or no more pizza and burgers for you.

Cheese sandwiches and other "alternate meals" have been added to menus in school districts across the country as districts try to take a bite out of parents' lunch debts.

The strategy worked in Chula Vista: Lunch debts in the district fell from about $300,000 in 2004 to $67,000 in 2006. Some angry parents say success came at too high a price, however.

The cheese sandwich, they say, has become a badge of shame for the children, who get teased about it by classmates. One student cried when her macaroni and cheese was replaced with a sandwich. Another girl hid in a restroom to avoid getting one. Many sandwiches end up untouched or in the garbage. Sometimes, children pound them to pieces.

"I think it's an infamous cheese sandwich," said Frank Luna, whose son, Christopher, just finished the sixth grade.

A year ago, he said, a cafeteria worker took away Christopher's pizza and forced him in front of his friends to pick up a sandwich instead. A similar incident occurred when Christopher was in the third grade. "The kid was humiliated," said his father, who added that he did not realize he owed less than $10.

In Chula Vista, the largest elementary-school district in the state, administrators said they had to control the ballooning debt before it forced them to make cuts in such areas as classroom equipment and books.

"When we did nothing, there was no incentive to pay," said Dennis Doyle, assistant superintendent of the district, which serves about 18,000 meals daily, including about 400 alternate meals.

Most schools across the country have introduced alternate meals, said Erik Peterson, a spokesman for the School Nutrition Association, an Alexandria, Va., organization for school-nutrition professionals.

Orange County's Capistrano Unified School District serves crackers with peanut butter or cheese. The Los Angeles Unified School District gives children half a sandwich and a piece of fruit. Peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches are a common alternate meal, but not a very effective one.

"It seemed to be one of the children's very favorite meals, so that wasn't productive," said Beth Taylor, nutrition director for the Johnston County School District in North Carolina, where such sandwiches were tried. Taylor said switching to vegetable and fruit trays changed everything.

School districts have long struggled with parents' failure to keep up with lunch payments. The problem is worse in wealthier areas, where most children do not receive free or reduced-price lunches. In Chula Vista, 61 percent of children pay full price for lunches.

Districts stress that the alternate meals are a last resort.

They send letters to parents. They hire collection agencies. Some place stickers on children's hands or put rubber bands on their wrists as reminders, Peterson said.

But alternate meals get the best results.

An effective alternate meal has to do two things: meet federal nutritional standards and flunk child taste tests. The cheese sandwich, typically served on untoasted whole-wheat bread, apparently qualifies as one perfectly healthful stinker of a meal.

The sandwiches' low appeal is one thing. The stigma attached to them is worse, parents say.

One Chula Vista third-grader, whose mother requested she not be identified, said students sometimes ostracize the cheese-sandwich kids. "Some kids say they're not the kind of kids you want to hang out with," she said.

Another girl said the cheese sandwich is "for people who don't have money."

Chula Vista administrators said many parents agree with their approach and they wouldn't need it if parents lived up to their responsibilities.

Parents can prepay for the meals by sending checks with their children or dropping off money at school. They can also let their children pay daily. The price for a meal in the district is $1.50, and about 6 percent of parents owe lunch money.

Doyle, the Chula Vista assistant superintendent, said the district has gone to great lengths to avoid stigmatizing children.

Next year, Doyle said, the alternate meal might sometimes be tacos.

All students are encouraged to avail themselves of the unlimited salad bar, where they can spice up the plain sandwiches with garbanzo beans, pickles, mayonnaise and lettuce.

"We think we have one of the most compassionate practices with respect to all of this," Doyle said.