The small crisis takes place countless times at the lunch hour in schools across Greater Houston: Students have no lunch money, for all sorts of reasons.

The solution du jour in many area school districts is cheese on bread, which officials describe as a necessary balance between child nutrition and fiscal responsibility. While not exactly Dickensian, these "alternative meals" are the best the school officials say they are able to do.

"There really is no such thing as a free lunch," said Matt Antignolo, food service director for Lamar CISD. "That is being billed somewhere."

But such meager fare is sparking debate from Austin to Washington over the obligation increasingly low-income public schools face to feed kids who either haven't applied for free or reduced-price meals or don't have lunch money.

One local critic known as the lunch angel has founded a local nonprofit to address school debts. At least five others have launched fundraisers.

They include local teacher Christopher Robinson, who took action last year after hearing about cheese sandwiches handed out in Fort Bend ISD. (The district now serves cereal.) Robinson, who grew up eating free lunches, empathized with the students being served alternative meals.

"It just shook me," he said. "You get bullied for stuff like that."

Robinson wasn't the only one paying attention. State legislators in Austin continue to propose fixes, including a proposal that would allow at least a two-week grace period for parents to repay the schools.

Other states have taken stronger measures. Last week, New Mexico outlawed shaming students whose parents have fallen behind making payments. Schools will be required to work with parents to repay debts or apply for help.

Meanwhile, Houston ISD's chief operating officer this week maintains that the district is among the few in Texas that do not serve an alternate meal, providing students with a regular meal regardless of their ability to pay. He said the incoming district child nutrition officer hopes to examine how to make lunch free for everyone.

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In 1946, the federal government established a program to assist those who could not afford school meals. In 2010, that expanded to include a provision that provides free meals for everyone in qualified low-income schools - nofamily paperwork required.

How to handle those at other campuses who still struggle to pay, yet do not sign up or qualify for help, remains up for debate. Nutrition directors endeavored to find a palatable solution. With free lunch for all unlikely, each developed a slightly different answer.

Houston-area school districts with the most debt

Schools in the Houston area allow students to charge a certain amount for meals if their accounts are empty. As a result, debt accumulates. Districts pay off whatever is not collected at the end of the school year, except Sheldon ISD, which pays off its debt monthly. Sometimes, donors contribute to help pay off these amounts, as happened with a donation of $1,000 in February to Galveston ISD. The information shown below reflects amounts of debt from provided from various dates between Feb. 28, 2017 and April 6, 2017.

"You can argue it either way," said Fred Walker, child nutrition director for Clear Creek ISD. "There's not a right or wrong answer to the whole situation, other than the kid is the one who suffers for it."

Schools consider alternative meals a last resort. Children complain about them, prompting parents to confront the issue. Nearly half of 2,426 students who owed money this year in Alief ISD, for example, qualified for free lunch.

But no one wants to take away a hot meal. And directors worry over sandwich stigma. To reduce shame, the child nutrition director for Stafford schools serves cheese sandwiches monthly for everyone.

Still, officials say they have no better way to handle the issue.

"We'd love to feed them all," said Doug Massey, nutrition and food services director for Klein ISD. "That's why we're here. That's what we want to do. But also, I'm very cognizant of the costs. I can't be a drain on the school district."

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Unpaid meal policies differ beginning with the limit on how much can be charged to an empty account. That might be $1, as in Clear Creek ISD, or $20, as in Humble ISD. Meals across grade levels cost an average of $2.27.

Schools also have various methods for contacting families. Often, they issue alerts when accounts get low and send home letters when they empty.

Crosby ISD officials call parents when students make their first charge to an empty account. They call again if it's not refilled.

In Channelview ISD, principals are notified if a child eats alternative meals for three consecutive days. In Clear Creek ISD, principals can cover meals with their own accounts.

"We all work on it," echoed Jennifer Basich, director of child nutrition services in Alvin ISD. "It's the lunch lady. It's the cashier. It's the principal. It's the secretary. It's the parents."

Unpaid school lunches in the Houston area

School districts across Houston differ in how they respond when students don't have lunch money. Some are more generous than others in the amount they allow students to charge to empty accounts. After the charge limit is reached, alternative meals like a cheese sandwich are typically provided, except in several districts that continue to give out regular meals anyway. Click each district below to learn more.In most school districts the debt could be paid if every student brought a $1, and in some districts, as little as a dime.

The free meal provided when charges run out is often cheese on bread - usually cold, except at Deer Park ISD, where it's grilled. It is common in part because of peanut allergies. Some offer sides. All provide juice or milk. But in districts such as Needville and Spring, the alternative for middle and high school students is nothing.

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Of 32 area districts surveyed, only four served a regular meal instead of an alternative one to students who continue to be unable to pay. Friendswood does so because it makes financial sense, an official said. Spring Branch and Cypress-Fairbanks cover costs with accounts funded by donations.

Such funds make a significant impact in Cy-Fair, though they recently stopped using them to cover high school meals because students were inappropriately taking advantage of the program, food services director Darin Crawford said.

He added that the program helps him sleep better at night.

"There's some things you just can't skimp on," said Kenny Thompson, aka the lunch angel. "You can't skimp on a child's health."

Thompson learned of the problem in 2014, when a student he mentored in Spring Branch ISD had his hot meal exchanged.

"I just wanted to go in a corner and hide," one student he worked with, Dakota Gibson, said in a 2014 StoryCorps radio interview of what that feels like.

Horrified, Thompson began to pay off debts across the region in return for a school's promise that it wouldn't serve an alternative lunch again. Most recently, he set his eyes on eliminating the cheese sandwiches he heard of at HISD.

In an interview Monday, though, HISD's new chief operating officer, Brian Busby, said students eat regular meals regardless of current payment.

A new nutrition services officer takes over in May, and Busby said he expects they willlook at how to make lunch free for all students. Thompson took the news as a victory.

"This is a big hoorah for the city, for our state," he said. "HISD's doing it? They're stopping it? Wow. Then why can't we all do it?"

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Widespread change has been incremental. At the federal level, the Department of Agriculture published a summary of best practices in September and is requiring that those using federal programs develop a written policy on the topic by July.

In Texas, a law authored by state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, a Houston-area Democrat, required districts in 2015 to establish policy regarding a grace period for when students run out of money.

State Rep. Helen Giddings, a Dallas-area Democrat, in a bill this term suggested that the grace period be at least two weeks, with standard notification requirements.

Giddings learned of the issue from a staff member who saw kids cry after their meals were trashed and replaced.

"It was unimaginable to me," Giddings said.

One Fort Hood-area teacher and military veteran, Kelvin Holt, says two weeks is too short.

Holt also has seen a child's food dumped. He said it wrongly punishes children for a parental problem. For him, fundraising for just one school wasn't enough.

"We're not a Third World country," he said. "We shouldn't have to fund our education through charity."

Holt started an online petition, wrote to the governor and contacted legislators. He drafted an amendment. He got nowhere.

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The problem for now remains with grass-roots movements and local leaders.

Amina Ishaq, who started a fundraiser for Lamar CISD, worries about the kids in the middle, who don't qualify for free or reduced meals but whose families struggle. She was one of them growing up; her effort drew more than $1,500.

"It's a sad situation," she said. "They're eating cold cheese sandwiches."

Robinson, who ate free lunches, raised $600 for Fort Bend. Jan Rynda Greer, who started a third local campaign, raised more than $200. She, too, grew up on a limited income. The political climate this year spurred her to address an issue she thought anyone could get behind.

A fourth raised more than $1,000for Galveston ISD. Ashley Olson launched a fifth. She benefited from reduced meals as a student and decided to raise money for Alief ISD, which she attended. She received more than $6,500, including $1,000 from GoFundMe.

"We all need help sometimes," she said.