[ [link removed] ]Stand with Rep. Ilhan Omar: Pass the No Shame at School Act
Petition to Congress:
"Pass the No Shame at School Act."
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Dear John,
[ [link removed] ]Stand with Rep. Ilhan
Omar: Pass the No Shame at
School Act
School lunch-shaming has taken a horrible turn. In one school district in
Pennsylvania, administrators recently threatened to take children away
from 40 parents over unpaid lunch debt.^1
Even when school lunch shaming doesn't reach this level, it is still
barbaric. Parents owe some form of school lunch debt in more than 75% of
school districts across the country. In some, administrators brand
children with wristbands, tokens, or sharpies or force them to perform
janitorial duties, even though they did nothing wrong. In others, schools
publish public lists shaming children or fire cafeteria workers who help
children buy lunch.^2,3
Progressive champion Rep. Ilhan Omar grew up in a refugee camp and knows
what it is like for children to feel hungry. She introduced the boldest
bill yet to end school lunch shaming, and now she needs our help.
[ [link removed] ]Stand with Rep. Ilhan Omar: Pass the No Shame at School Act. Click here
to sign the petition.
Donald Trump wants to make the situation even worse. He recently proposed
changing who is eligible for SNAP benefits – popularly known as food
stamps – in a move that would take school lunches off the trays of more
than 500,000 children and rob families and single adults of food security.
These are the people who are already feeling the crush of Trump economic
policy of tax handouts for the rich and cuts for everyone else.^4
Children whose families are eligible for food security help are supposed
to be automatically certified to receive school lunches. But many schools
simply fail to certify kids or misspell their names – leaving them without
hot food or their parents on the hook for meals they cannot afford. On top
of it all, in 2017, the Trump administration ordered schools to begin
collecting unpaid lunch debt, supercharging the problem of lunch
shaming.^5
Rep. Omar's bill would tackle the problem in three ways. First, it would
ban a host of specific practices that schools use to shame children,
including any sort of public identification of children with lunch debt.
Second, it would block schools from handing parents' information over to
debt collectors who abuse and harass them while imposing extra fees. Most
importantly, it would allow schools to retroactively seek federal funding
from children who ate free meals before they were certified for help –
which would effectively wipe out unfair and unpayable debts.^6
The No Shame at School Act is a progressive, common-sense remedy to one of
the many ways our nation is failing the next generation. We need to help
Rep. Omar show just how many Americans are sick and tired of school lunch
shaming and demand action.
Stand with Rep. Ilhan Omar: Pass the No Shame at School Act. Click below
to sign the petition:
[ [link removed] ][link removed]
Thank you for speaking out,
Heidi Hess, Co-Director
[ [link removed] ]CREDO Action from Working Assets
Add your name:
[ [link removed] ]Sign the petition ►
References:
1. Bettina Elias Siegel, "[ [link removed] ]Will a New Federal Law Finally Put an End to
School Lunch Shaming?" Civil Eats, July 26, 2019.
2. Ibid.
3. Emily Moon, "[ [link removed] ]Why are more schools going after families for lunch
debt?" Pacific Standard, July 26, 2019.
4. Karen Dolan, "[ [link removed] ]Opinion: Trump’s cuts to food stamps are
indefensible, economically and morally," MarketWatch, July 31, 2019.
5. Moon, "[ [link removed] ]Why are more schools going after families for lunch debt?"
6. Elias Siegel, "[ [link removed] ]Will a New Federal Law Finally Put an End to School
Lunch Shaming?"
Photo: Kerem Yucel/AFP/Getty Images
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