‘Sandwiches of shame’ prove successful, school says

After enforcing a controversial new policy to encourage families to pay off lunch debt, an Indiana high school has reduced its accrued lunch debt by $20,000, kokomoperspective.com reports.

“We thank the families that are being responsible and are paying their debt, but even more so, we thank the families who have paid their lunch fees on a regular basis,” Dave Barnes, director of communications for Kokomo School Corporation, told the website.

The policy, which offered indebted students an alternative lunch of a cheese-and-bread sandwich, capped the amount of lunch debt students could accrue at $25.

The school garnered national attention when a student posted a picture of the alternative lunch— called “sandwiches of shame” by some critics— on social media.

Officials defended the policy enacted Jan. 4., noting that the accrued lunch debt had reached $50,000, which could lead to loss of federal funding for the district.

Read the full story at kokomoperspective.com.