Bill Ending 'Lunch Shaming' In MA Schools Signed: Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Friday, October 15. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• A 2-alarm fire in Framingham damaged a Route 9 apartment building.
• Gov. Charlie Baker has signed a bill that could end shaming around school lunch debt.
• A hiker found a 5-year-old boy who was missing in a Lincoln forest for about two hours Thursday.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's Top Story: Schools Can No Longer 'Lunch Shame'

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed a new state law Thursday that focuses on students' access to school meals, with provisions around free breakfast and lunch as well as unpaid meal debt.

The new law also takes aim at a practice known as "lunch shaming," prohibiting schools from publicly identifying or taking punitive action against students who have unresolved debt for school meals.

"The new law is both timely and critical because it boosts federal nutrition dollars to schools across Massachusetts, and keeps children out of what should be an 'adult only' conversation on school meal debt," said Patricia Baker, a senior policy analyst at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. "But we know that more work needs to be done, at both the state and federal level, to ensure that no child is food insecure."

Read the full story.

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Friday's Other Top Stories

Fire in Framingham: Firefighters from Framingham and Sudbury responded to a Route 9 apartment building Friday morning. The response closed streets in the city's busy shopping corridor.

Missing five-year-old found safe: A hiker found a 5-year-old boy who was missing in a Lincoln forest for about two hours Thursday night, according to police and fire officials. The boy was reported missing near a private school along Bedford Road around 4:30 p.m. just south of Route 2.

Cop did call man 'coward': Worcester police wrapped up an internal investigation late last week probing an incident where an officer approached a neighborhood group leader outside a WooSox game and called him a "coward."

Auchincloss gets challenger: A Newton businesswoman will try to oust U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss in the 4th Congressional District in 2022. Emily Burns will run as a Republican, and has so far focused her campaign around COVID-19 rules.

Picture This: Park No. 62

Worcester christened the city's 62nd park on Thursday afternoon by unveiling an arch that serves as the gateway to a park along the Blackstone River Heritage Corridor. The arch pays homage to the region's industrial past.

In Case You Missed It

Positive coronavirus test rates rise again: The positive coronavirus test rate rose back above 2 percent Thursday, despite continued declines in other statewide virus metrics. The average daily case count remained below 1,000 and the hospitalization and death rates continued to fall, the Department of Public Health reported. At the town level, roughly half of communities reported falling positive test rates, according to town-by-town data released Thursday. Twenty Massachusetts communities didn't report a single positive test over the last two weeks, up four from the last report.

By The Numbers

9: The number of bat species found in Massachusetts. Between Saturday and Halloween, MassWildlife will celebrate "Bat Week" in Massachusetts as a way to raise awareness about the importance — and relative harmlessness — of the furry critters.