Ending School Lunch Shaming: Essay Sample on Comparing Two Articles

Introduction: School Lunch Shaming and Its Impact on Students

In general view, school lunch shaming refers to public identification and embarrassment of school kids who have unpaid lunch debts in their school. This paper compares the themes and perspectives of two articles regarding the topic.

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Article 1: Heather Long's Perspective on Ending School Lunch Shaming

The first article by Heather Long highlights the resolution by Republicans and Democrats to end the barbaric practice of school lunch shaming. The author describes the terrible anguish that poor students were subjected to, particularly during school lunches, merely because their parents could not pay for their school meals. He puts in the picture how various school managements instructed cafeteria staff to take away plates of hot foodstuff from students with lunch debts and throw it in the garbage. The kids were then offered freezing cheese sandwiches or, even worse, forced to go starving with no food at all. Moreover, kids were in a few instances obliged to put on stickers, colored wristbands, and stamps that identified them with unpaid school lunch arrears. There was an outburst of responses subsequent to publication of school lunch shaming story by CNN Money, which enlightened citizens about the practice. Heather describes how a group of bipartisan legislators introduced an Act against lunch shaming in schools to restrain the horrible of customs. Indeed, one of the co-sponsors of the bill from Illinois, Rodney Davis, alluded that their desire was to see schools address outstanding lunch payments with parents without targeting the kids.

To add on, the article featured Chris Robinson- a special education teacher who initiated GoFundMe page to settling lunch arrears for kids in Fort Bend School District in Texas, ensuring that none of the kids missed a proper lunch. The page was highlighted in the story by CNN Money and readers through donations, raised almost $20,000. Following the success, Robinson carried a touching note bearing words of gratitude from one of the kids in elementary school who had benefited through the campaign. Similarly, Amina Ishaq- an elementary school president was also featured in the story. She managed to raise more $18,000 to clear all meal debts in her center. Her appreciation message to CNN Money refers to the donors as angels detailing her delight that so many students would benefit.

However, a number of readers are in the fury that some irresponsible parents neglected their children by allowing them to go hungry and endure public embarrassment. In fact, Richard, one of the readers, alluded that taxpayers ought not to bear the bills as this would serve as a back-up for more parents to decline their responsibilities to prioritize their own kids. On the contrary, Matt Antignolo articulates that as some parents may be joyriders in the system, a huge majority of parents with the lunch arrears are actually uneducated, poor and cannot afford to pay.

Article 2: Zachary Wolf's Account of the Return of School Lunch Shaming in Rhode Island

The second article by Zachary Wolf describes the comeback school lunch shaming in Rhode Island school where cafeteria workers served cold meals- sun butter to kids with lunch arrears. In Minnesota, high school students with lunch arrears would be curtailed from celebrating their graduation, while in other cases, students would be shamed publicly. It was not until after new guiding principles were given calling for all districts to deal with the matter that a new narrative of school lunch shaming cooled down representing lunch providers and cafeteria workers as activist for provision of school lunches at no cost for needy students.

The article illustrates that in this era, most schools avoided the public identification and shaming of children with school lunch arrears. They opted for online payment plans, getting other means to reach parents as regards unpaid arrears instead of using the kids and agree to charitable donations as stipulated by the School Nutrition and Dietary Association (The Government Already Knows How to End School Lunch Shaming. n.d.). Zachary eludes those cafeteria workers as well as school district administrators aware of what this meal means for students, and they strive to ensure that all students take the meal. Further, he highlights the governments initiatives in ending the practice of lunch shaming such as availing applications for free and subsidized-price lunches for qualifying students, increasing the budget share for childhood nutrition plan and the amount allocated to school and providing collective school lunches in jurisdictions that were launched after bipartisan passing and signing the Act of Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act into law in the year 2010 by President Obama.

Similarities in the Articles: Themes, Perspectives, and Impact of School Lunch Shaming

These articles are similar in that they speak to the same subject of school lunch shaming and the actions that have been taken to curb the practice. Heather describes the situation as it were in 2016 when there were barely any laws regarding school lunch shaming and how the story by CNN Money led to bipartisan bill proposal on lunch shaming by the congressmen. Zachary, on the other hand, illustrates the return of lunch shaming in 2018- an era when there were plenty of laws on school lunch shaming.

Both articles describe denial of quality food, use of stamps, and colored wristbands as the symbolic strategies that schools used to shame students (Long, 2017). Further, the articles delineate the same perspective for the practice that is to humiliate parents and their kids so as to make timely payments and in turn, reduce the fiscal burden of the school.

Empathy and Community Initiatives: Teachers and Good Samaritans Helping Students with Lunch Debts

The two articles bring out the theme of empathy as teachers and community members of goodwill initiate activities and campaigns to raise money to settle the debts. For instance, in Heather's article, teachers such as Robinson and Amina are so compassionate to the kids to the extent that they undertake campaigns to raise money and ensure all kids take proper lunch. Zachary's article talks about a woman who used proceeds from her organization to settle meal arrears for kids whose graduation celebrations had been denied owing to the debts (Evansville Woman Leads Effort to Pay off Local School Lunch Debts, 2016).

Heather and Zachary dwell on the role of politics and government in policymaking and implementation of the policies. Heather gives details of how the bipartisan legislators agreed on the Anti-Lunch Shaming Act, while Zachary describes the Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act, which had received bipartisan support as it was being passed to become law during the reign of Barrack Obama. This is an indicator of political goodwill in matters concerning education and the health of kids.

The two articles are differentiated by the readers. Some readers of the article by Heather bring out the aspect of negligence from the parents who allegedly allow their kids to go hungry and even face public humiliation. The readers warn citizens not to take up lunch debts as the parents will be encouraged to remain irresponsible and ignorant of the need of their own children. However, readers of Zachary's article are positive that the parents are genuinely poor and cannot pay for lunch debts. They feel obligated to help in settling the debts, and as they believe that a student should not be punished due to the parent's inability to pay school arrears.

References

Evansville Woman Leads Effort to Pay off Local School Lunch Debts. (2016, December 21). Retrieved October 17, 2019, from https://www.courierpress.com/story/life/family/2016/12/21/evansville-woman-leads-effort-pay-off-local-school-lunch-debts/95706922/

The Government Already Knows How to End School Lunch Shaming. (n.d.). Retrieved October 17, 2019, from https://www.abc57.com/news/the-government-already-knows-how-to-end-school-lunch-shaming

Long, H. (2017, May 15). School Lunch Shaming: 'No One Believes We Do This to Kids.' Will Congress End It? Retrieved October 17, 2019, from https://money.cnn.com/2017/05/15/news/economy/school-lunch-shaming-congress-bill/index.html