The document discusses how New York City schools are facing budget cuts if unpaid student lunch debts are not collected. Many students at Intermediate School 61 receive free or reduced price lunches, but some parents are behind on payments for their children's lunches. The principal has tried collecting small amounts from parents who owe but new debts are accumulating. The city has absorbed $42 million in unpaid lunch fees but can no longer afford to do so given budget cuts. Over 1,000 schools owe $2.5 million total for meals served so far this year and that amount is projected to reach $8 million by the end of the year. The problem of unpaid student lunch debts affecting school budgets is occurring nationwide as more parents fall behind during tough

1. Schools Facing Cuts if Lunches Aren’t Paid For
Of the 2,200 students at Intermediate School 61 in Corona, Queens, 86 percent receive free cafeteria
lunches. Some others pay a reduced price, and some are supposed to pay full price.
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Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times
A cafeteria worker at Intermediate School 61 checks whether students have enough in their accounts to
cover the cost of lunch. Otherwise, they must pay cash.
But not all of their parents pay what they are supposed to, and recently, the school’s principal, Joseph
Lisa, has been spending a lot of time trying to collect money from them.
He has cornered them in the hallways. He has offered them gentle reminders after school meetings. He
has called them and sent them letters suggesting payment plans for debts that might amount to $20 or
$30.
“We give them little pieces of paper saying, ‘This week you owe $5, $3, 50 cents,’ ” Mr. Lisa said, “but
as soon as we collect it from one parent, there’s another who’s falling behind.”
Since 2004, the city has absorbed at least $42 million in unpaid lunch fees. But that is a luxury it can no
longer afford, according to the Education Department, which has weathered several rounds of budget
cuts, with more to come. The department has been telling principals to collect overdue lunch money or
risk having it docked from their school budgets.
Of the city’s 1,600 schools, 1,043 owe a collective $2.5 million to the department for meals served in
the first three months of this school year. That puts them on track to be $8 million behind by the end of
the school year.
New York City’s lunch money problem is costly and complicated, but not unique. The economy has
school administrators all over the country scratching for savings even as more parents are falling
behind in lunch fees. A September survey by the School Nutrition Association, a professional
organization, showed that in 2009-10, 34 percent of school districts saw an increase from the previous
school year in the number of meals not paid for.