Students from families with incomes below 130 percent of the federal poverty threshold ($32,630 for a family of four) are eligible for free lunch. Students from families with incomes above that value but below 185 percent of the threshold ($46,435 for a family of four) qualify for reduced-price lunch. The exact reimbursement rates are determined by an array of factors, including location and area poverty levels.

According to USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS), the federal lunch program spends $13.6 billion on reimbursements annually. But funding comes with its own set of limitations. Schools are permitted to use the money toward obvious costs of running a cafeteria like ingredients and workers, as well as indirect costs like payroll and gas. However, they’re prohibited from using it to wipe out unpaid lunch debt.

They are, however, permitted to use the funds toward contracting a for-profit collection agency to collect that debt.

That’s why schools put so much pressure on families to pay outstanding balances. Some, as in Kyrie’s case, prevent students from participating in school events until the debt is cleared. Others go so far as to prevent students with lunch debt from receiving their diplomas. To Candrice Jones, this exemplifies a broken school lunch system, one that uses students’ needs as collateral to leverage money from parents.

“They know your kids are going to be upset. They know your kids are going to be mad. And so they know that your kids are going to press you to get this bill paid,” she told me. “I felt bad as a mother because I couldn’t take care of the bill.”

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Though total lunch debt varies by district, most reporting on the issue credits its rise to policies that prohibit the practice of “lunch-shaming,” which refers to an array of methods schools use to stigmatize students who can’t afford the full price of school lunch. Some schools literally stamp students who can’t pay, others serve them cold, “substitute” lunches—like sandwiches—instead of hot meals. The practice has come under intense scrutiny in recent years.