Movement To Stop 'Lunch Shaming' Hits Seattle, Snohomish County

SEATTLE, WA - Last week, Jeffrey Lew, a parent of a student in Seattle Public Schools, set goal to eliminate the $21,000 in school lunch debt in the distrct. He broke that fundraising goal through a GoFundMe fundraiser in just five days, and he's continuing to raise money for the cause. And now it appears the movement to eliminate school lunch debt is spreading outside the Seattle district.

In response to the success of Lew's campaign, Sarah Lenaburg, an educator from Bothell, is trying to raise $5,500 to eliminate school lunch debt in Everett Public Schools. In late December, another GoFundMe campaign raised enough money to eliminate school lunch debt in Shoreline schools.

What is school lunch debt? It's when a student owes money to the school cafeteria. In some instances, lunch debt can lead to "lunch shaming," where a school will serve a student lower-quality meals - or nothing at all - until the debt is paid. New Mexico recently passed a law against lunch shaming, which bans schools that receive federal funding from singling out kids who have lunch debt. The law deems that schools work with parents directly on debt payment.

New Mexico state Sen. Michael Padilla, who helped get the law passed, recently recounted to NPR that, when he was a student, he would mop floors in the cafeteria in exchange for food.

"I always feel that no child should ever go hungry due to not having money," Lew told Q13. "Because, you know, they're children. They can't work so they don't even know what the concept of money is."

Image via GoFundMe