>So then the lunchlady has to act like a debt collector and go take their food away and replace it with something cheaper (not sure why they just don't decline them the hot lunch food in the first place).
I'm sure it works 1000 different ways in 1000 different schools, but generally you pick up the tray at the beginning of the line and pay at the end of the line, so kids that are broke get to the end of the line and can't pay and then have the tray taken away and are handed a brown bag with a sandwich in it instead. Since most of these systems are tied to a lunch card or their student id, they don't know that they don't have any money left to pay until they get to the register and are told they don't. Likely they are allowed to "overdraft" by a week or two worth before they get to that point, but I'm sure some schools probably cut them off immediately. The overdraft is what the author in the OP is paying off, so now those kids are back zero and get to overdraft another week or two until they are cut off again. Or theoretically their parents that couldn't pay the overdraft off might be in a position to at least pay going forward.
I'm sure it works 1000 different ways in 1000 different schools, but generally you pick up the tray at the beginning of the line and pay at the end of the line, so kids that are broke get to the end of the line and can't pay and then have the tray taken away and are handed a brown bag with a sandwich in it instead. Since most of these systems are tied to a lunch card or their student id, they don't know that they don't have any money left to pay until they get to the register and are told they don't. Likely they are allowed to "overdraft" by a week or two worth before they get to that point, but I'm sure some schools probably cut them off immediately. The overdraft is what the author in the OP is paying off, so now those kids are back zero and get to overdraft another week or two until they are cut off again. Or theoretically their parents that couldn't pay the overdraft off might be in a position to at least pay going forward.