Lunch policies in the U.P.

I'm calvin lewis.

3 our next story tonight answers the question of "could it happen' in the u.p.....if a child doesnt have enough money in their school lunch account, will the school still provide something?local 3's mollie hollebeke has our story.

Mollie hollebeke, reporter: "lunch shaming" has sparked some controversy in social media, on a recent story that happened in pennsylvania.

An elementary school cafeteria worker quit her job after having to take a lunch away from 2 students because of newly enforced policies on delinquent lunch accounts.

Stacy koltiska, a former employee at canon mcmillan school district: "his eyes welled up with tears.

I mean, i'll never forget his name, the look on his face."

Reporter: the policies in stacy's school district enforced the refusal of a hot lunch if the students lunch account was delinquent 25 dollars or more.

Students k-6 were served a cold sandwich as a replacement, and no alternative lunch for the older students.

And although most schools in the u.p.

Have similar policies, they take a softer stance on the issue.tom jayne, superintendent of gwinn area community schools: "we would never take the initial food that was served to them away and give them something alternative, we would just add it to the deficiency on the account.

It's a mistake and you have to think of that child.

We would never want to put an employee or any of our students in that position to be embarrassed."

Mollie hollebeke, reporter: "some schools in gwinn actually enforce policies that help provide students with free breakfasts and lunches.

And because of these policies, they've seen many changes for the better."barbie ward- thomas, food service director for gwinn area community schools: "this year, the finance manager aj filizetti and myself worked on numbers, and we decided we would be able to offer all of the children free breakfast and free lunch based on a government grant.

It's working so far, our numbers are quadrupling.

I mean, it's been fantastic."jayne: "today we had 400 students have breakfast here, and we have approximately about 550 students."local 3 reached out to 4 different school districts in the u.p., and found that they all offer free or alternative lunches 100% of the time.

No school district would ever refuse to provide a student a meal.

The schools are also always contacting parents through letters, calls, or emails, to notify them on the status of student accounts.

Reporting for local 3 news, i'm mollie