Metro Schools Have Accrued Thousands in Student Lunch Debt

A hot lunch at a Metro school runs students in kindergarten through eighth grade $2.75. For a high-schooler, it’s an even $3. And for students who qualify for free and reduced lunch through the Community Eligibility Program, the most they will ever pay is 40 cents per meal. 

But very recently, it wasn’t that way. From 2014 to 2018, lunches were free to all students in Metro Nashville Public Schools thanks to the Community Eligibility Program, a federal program that provides reimbursement to schools offering free lunch to students. Due to a change in eligibility requirements, the number of students qualifying for federal assistance declined. And without those reimbursements, many of Metro’s schools simply can not afford to provide free lunch. 

Of the roughly 165 schools in the district, all but 29 currently qualify for free lunch for all students. Because of that, over the course of the 2019-20 school year, Metro schools have racked up a considerable balance of school lunch debt.

That’s according to Anna Shepherd, chair of the school board. On Jan. 21, MNPS released a list of schools with outstanding balances greater than $200. Though technically any outstanding balances are owed by students, anything owed at the end of the school year becomes the school’s responsibility. On the list are 26 schools with debts ranging from $219.19 to $10,023.10. The combined total debt is $67,692, and Shepherd says it may be up to the community to help the schools pay down that debt — that’s the total amount of lunches that students at those schools were unable to pay. 

“For some of our families, sometimes the resources are just not there,” says Shepherd. “Nashvillians step up to the plate really well in providing classroom teachers with their needs. Now it’s the students who have needs.” 

On the list of schools with accumulated lunch debt is Hillsboro High School in Metro’s 8th school district. As of Jan. 15, Hillsboro had a balance of $9,565.75. 

Enrollment at Hillsboro High is approximately 1,200, according to Shuler Pelham, executive principal. Roughly 45 percent of those students qualify for free and reduced lunch. 

“The vast majority of the charges are between $5 and $20, but that adds up,” says Pelham. “Maybe that student forgets their lunch money a couple times and forgets about it, and the parents don’t even know about the balance. Those charges account for probably half the amount. The outliers are the students who have a hundred dollars or more. It doesn’t take very many of those for the balances to get high.”