一個(gè)非營(yíng)利組織如何壓制“午餐羞辱者”

一個(gè)非營(yíng)利組織如何壓制“午餐羞辱者”

When I was a kid, it was the red lunch ticket. Today it's the plain cheese sandwich. In both instances the message is loud, clear and humiliating: "This child does not have enough money for lunch."

當(dāng)我還是個(gè)孩子的時(shí)候，這是一張紅色的午餐券。今天是原味奶酪三明治。在這兩種情況下，信息都是響亮、清晰和羞辱性的:“這個(gè)孩子沒有足夠的錢吃午飯。”

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Kids should not be punished for financial issues that are out of their control. (Photo: New Africa/Shutterstock)

I'm sure those tickets were part of some well-intentioned plan to count the number of kids utilizing the subsidized program, but for the kids in the lunchroom, those tickets screamed poverty louder than any words ever could have.

我相信這些票是一些善意計(jì)劃的一部分，目的是為了統(tǒng)計(jì)有多少孩子在使用補(bǔ)貼計(jì)劃，但是對(duì)于餐廳里的孩子們來說，這些票比任何語言都更能表達(dá)貧困。

It's no secret that budgets are tight at schools across the country. For many, the unpaid balances on school lunch accounts add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Surely there's a better way to recoup these funds than shaming kids in front of other students.

全國(guó)各地學(xué)校的預(yù)算都很緊張，這不是什么秘密。對(duì)許多人來說，學(xué)校午餐賬戶上的未付余額總計(jì)達(dá)數(shù)十萬美元。肯定有比在其他學(xué)生面前羞辱孩子更好的方式來收回這些資金。

Enter the Lunch Angel

午餐天使登場(chǎng)

Kenny Thompson (aka the Lunch Angel) has created his own solution to this problem. Thompson, a tutor and mentor at a Houston elementary school, was having lunch with one of his mentees when that child's lunch was taken away and replaced with a cheese sandwich.

肯尼·湯普森(又名午餐天使)為這個(gè)問題提出了自己的解決方案。湯普森是休斯敦一所小學(xué)的教師和導(dǎo)師。他和一名學(xué)生共進(jìn)午餐時(shí)，那名學(xué)生的午餐被拿走了，換成了奶酪三明治。

Feed the Future Forward raises funds by hosting charity events and collecting donations. The group uses all proceeds to pay off outstanding balances at school cafeterias in the Houston area. Since its launch last year, the program has expanded from one school to nearly 141 schools and 150,000 students in seven school districts.

通過舉辦慈善活動(dòng)和募集捐款來籌集資金。該組織將所有收益用于支付休斯頓地區(qū)學(xué)校食堂的未付余額。自去年啟動(dòng)以來，該項(xiàng)目已從一所學(xué)校擴(kuò)展到近141所學(xué)校和七個(gè)校區(qū)的15萬名學(xué)生。

A federal mandate

聯(lián)邦授權(quán)

It's a solution that opened the door for other approaches. In 2017, the Department of Agriculture set July 1 as the deadline for all states to establish policies on how to be respectful of schoolchildren who cannot pay for their lunches.

這個(gè)解決方案為其他方法打開了大門。2017年，美國(guó)農(nóng)業(yè)部(Department of Agriculture)將7月1日定為所有州制定政策的最后期限，內(nèi)容是如何尊重那些交不起午餐費(fèi)用的學(xué)童。

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 required the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to study the issue. In response, the USDA asked schools to put a policy in place, but it allowed local discretion on the content of the policy, according to the Food Research & Action Center. (In fact the USDA has a helpful Q&A section as well as policy guidance for those who haven't instituted new rules yet.)

《2010年健康、無饑餓兒童法案》要求美國(guó)農(nóng)業(yè)部(USDA)研究這一問題。美國(guó)食品研究與行動(dòng)中心(Food Research & Action Center)說，作為回應(yīng)，美國(guó)農(nóng)業(yè)部要求學(xué)校制定相關(guān)政策，但允許地方自行決定政策的內(nèi)容。(事實(shí)上，美國(guó)農(nóng)業(yè)部有一個(gè)很有幫助的問答部分，還為那些還沒有制定新規(guī)定的人提供了政策指導(dǎo)。)

Some cities and states have already addressed it. California outlawed lunch shaming in October 2019, ensuring that even a student with an unpaid bill will receive a hot lunch. New Mexico passed a law in March 2017 that directs schools to speak only with the parents about financial matters and prohibits the "cold cheese sandwich" approach. Minnesota, San Francisco and Houston also recently adopted anti-lunch-shaming policies, to name just a few.

一些城市和州已經(jīng)解決了這個(gè)問題。2019年10月，加州宣布午餐羞辱為非法，確保即使是沒有付賬的學(xué)生也能吃到熱午餐。2017年3月，新墨西哥州通過了一項(xiàng)法律，要求學(xué)校只與家長(zhǎng)談?wù)摻?jīng)濟(jì)問題，并禁止“冷奶酪三明治”的做法。舉幾個(gè)例子，明尼蘇達(dá)、舊金山和休斯頓最近也采取了反午餐羞辱政策。