The Associated Press
\SOUTH BEND — School districts across the state are battling rising lunch debt as more students arrive without money to pay for meals.
The rising debt could force some administrators to consider turning delinquent accounts over to collection agencies, said Gregg Hixenbaugh, a spokesman for Mishawaka schools.
The jump in delinquencies comes as more students are qualifying for free or reduced price meals because of the struggling economy.
Twenty-two percent of those in Penn-Harris-Madison schools now receive aid compared with 19 percent last school year. School City of Mishawaka's numbers have risen to 59 percent from 55 percent last year.
Sara Gasiorowski, a spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association, said the mounting debt creates problems for school systems — especially when it piles up. One southern Indiana district had a negative lunch balance of $25,000 to $30,000 last school year, she noted.
"The (school) nutrition program is supposed to be self supporting," she said. "We're not funded through the state. We're funded through students' payments and federal reimbursement."
Districts say they're taking steps to address the issue.
South Bend Community Schools has a program called Provision 3 in which all students eat free in 22 of the district's 33 buildings, said spokeswoman Sue Coney.
At least 75 percent of the students in those buildings would qualify for aid, she said.
Penn-Harris-Madison schools, a district of more than 10,000, initiated a campaign before school started this year to ensure families were aware of the process to apply for meal assistance.
Three hundred more students receive free meals this year than last, food services director Jill Riggs said.
Students who don't qualify for aid but show up without lunch money are given a meal. The cost is charged to their account.
"If it becomes a chronic issue, we'll have them eat a peanut butter and jelly (sandwich) meal," she said.
School office personnel notify parents when students arrive without lunch money.
"The big key is, you've got to get on it right away," Riggs said.
Mishawaka has seen its lunch deficit rise more than 150 percent, to about $2,600, over last year. Hixenbaugh, the district spokesman, said school officials want to curtail its growth.
But the district does not move students into a different line for an alternative meal, he said.
"We tell our staff this is an adult problem," he said. "Kids receive a hot, nutritious lunch regardless of their economic situation."
