DONATE: Click here to donate to help erase student lunch debt in UtahAfter filing public records requests with each of the state’s 41 school districts again this year, I found the debt ballooned to $2,800,000 – an increase of more than $870,000.“It doesn’t surprise me that the number of unpaid lunches are increasing,” said Ginette Bott, the president and CEO of Utah Food Bank. “Our families are struggling to make ends meet.
“This has been building and building and building,” Bott said. “At some point, we had hoped we’d see a plateau, and that hasn’t happened. The numbers continue to increase and it's really frightening.” She points to extremely stringent federal requirements to qualify for free or reduced price school meals as contributing to the issue.