Lunch shaming

In 2016, an Alabama third grader returned home from school with his hand stamped. The stamp said, "I need lunch money," and it had a cheerful face on it. The stamp was designed to remind his parents to replenish his school meal account. It was a harmless reminder for some. Others saw it as a way to humiliate the pupil. Students enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are especially vulnerable to such shaming (SNAP). SNAP provides monthly food benefits to low-income Americans. In 2019, 44% of SNAP recipients were children of school age.

States have taken attempts to limit the use of children to protest against SNAP, a contentious issue in and of itself, through lunch shaming. Children enrolled in SNAP or with low or negative food account balances were detected publicly at schools across the country using a variety of methods. Such kids were obliged to wear wristbands or have their hands branded, and they were served different meals than pupils who paid for their meals. Such efforts to identify students of lower socioeconomic status and subject them to embarrassment, humiliation, and disgrace remain contentious. Despite efforts at the state and federal levels to ban it, lunch shaming remains a cause of substantial debate.