A Rhode Island school district, facing mounting lunch debts, has reversed a controversial policy announced earlier this week that would limit students owing money to the school to a sunflower-seed-butter-and-jelly sandwich.

The policy drew widespread criticism for “lunch shaming”, which critics say unfairly puts a child’s economic situation up for judgment in the notoriously ruthless social environment of the school cafeteria.

After Warwick public schools announced the policy, which was set to go into effect 13 May, the school’s Facebook page received more than 1,000 comments, most expressing outrage at the district publicly burdening students with unpaid lunch debts. The new rule would have required any student who owed money to Warwick public schools to forego other hot meal or a la carte options and instead have the cold sandwich until the money was repaid or a payment plan established.

The district walked back the policy Wednesday evening, with the school policy subcommittee “recommending that the Warwick school committee allow the students their choice of lunch regardless of their account status”, wrote Karen Bachus, chairwoman of the Warwick school committee, in a Facebook post.

According to the district, the Warwick public schools faces $77,000 in outstanding debt for school meals.

The fracas encapsulated a national conversation over school lunches as a locus of economic justice. Besides the social stigma, missing a meal can make it more difficult for kids to focus, said Diane Pratt-Heavner, a spokeswoman for the School Nutrition Association, which represents more than 58,000 workers in school nutrition. “School meals are just as important as textbooks to learning.”

The federal government provides free or reduced meals to about 30 million students daily through the National School Lunch Program, of which the Warwick district is a member. But the government bars using federal funds for debt incurred by students outside the program – an issue hinging on registration rather than need – leaving school districts in a lurch when making up the costs.

“It’s become a real challenge in recent years with the escalating amount of school meal debt,” said Pratt-Heavner. “If a student is not enrolled, the school is not receiving reimbursement from the federal government to cover that meal. So the debt can escalate quickly.”

The School Nutrition Association has identified widespread meal debt among public schools – according to its 2018 operations report, 75.3% of districts reporting had unpaid student meal debt at the end of the 2016-17 school year.

Warwick public schools cited this challenge as the motivator behind the sunflower-seed-butter-sandwich policy, even as it was reversed: “With this Policy [sic] we seek to find a balance between being fiscally responsible and ensuring that all our students are provided with a healthy, nutritious lunch,” wrote Bachus.