The last thing that a child should have to worry about when going to school is how they are going to get a meal. School lunch should be free across the country, but sadly, that's not the case. Parents that cannot afford to pay for their children's school lunch accumulate a debt that is then held over their heads. Hounding parents and their children over these debts is already stressful enough, but the Pennsylvania school district of Wyoming Valley West took it one step further.

Each parent with a child with school lunch debt was sent a letter saying that if the debt was not paid off, they could be sent to Dependency Court for refusing to provide their child with food. The court hearing could then result in their child being placed in the foster care system. These parents were being threatened into paying these debts, which they would have already paid if they had the means to do so. Sending out these letters did not suddenly cause these families to find the money to pay off the debts. It only added an unwarranted burden to their lives.

The letter went viral and many people expressed their disgust at the school district shaming parents for not having the money to pay for their children's lunch. Senator Bob Casey took to Twitter and defended the families that were being targeted.

"No child should have to imagine the horror of being ripped away from their parents because their family is struggling economically. These letters were callous and should never have happened."

Todd Carmichael, the cofounder and CEO of La Colombe Coffee in Philadelphia, offered to pay off the entirety of the school lunch debt when the news of the letter spread, but the school district turned him down. They also turned down 100 other offers from donors. It became clear that Wyoming Valley West did not actually care about the money they lost, but rather, they were determined to bully poor families. This decision caused even more of an uproar online, which led to the school district accepting Carmichael's offer after all.

The school district also now qualifies for the Community Eligibility Program, which will provide free breakfast and lunch to all students, regardless of income, for the next five years.

I am relieved that for now, these families no longer have to worry about how to pay for their children's school lunch. However, I am still horrified that it was even a possibility for these children to be taken from their families solely because they are poor. The amount of money a family makes does not correlate to how much love and support there is in the home. Instead of humiliating families for being unable to pay for their children's lunch, the district should have taken the initiative to help these families. Especially in Wyoming Valley West, where more than 14% of people live below the poverty line. When you know that there is that many people in your community struggling to buy food for their children, your first instinct should not be to demand money from them that you know they do not have.

The school district stated that they never denied a child a meal if they could not pay for it, but that should be the standard, to begin with. Giving out these free meals does not negate the fact that they tried to separate these families solely because of their economic status. Yes, it is a nice gesture to be given a free meal when you cannot afford one, but it would be even nicer to not have to deal with the threat of being taken away from the people that love you.