Marion and Rochester school committee members chewed over a policy change that would limit how often elementary students may charge lunch.

After researching other districts, Food Service Coordinator Caitlyn Meagher recommended limiting elementary school students to charging five meals, should they forget lunch money.

Students who reach the five-meal threshold would be served a peanut butter sandwich, a cheese sandwich, or an alternative at a cost of 50 cents until the debt is paid.

Last June, unpaid lunches totaled $900 at Sippican School, which was more than double the other schools. In an effort to keep debt down, Meagher said she emailed reminders to 231 parents last Friday and received a favorable response.

“It’s definitely helped. I will continue to do that once weekly for all negative accounts,” Meagher said. “A lot of people were unaware.”

Marion school committee member Christine Winters noted part of the problem stems from a change in software. Previously, automatic reminders were sent to parents. After the switch, parents had to sign up again to receive the notifications.

“What we didn’t want to do was have the little guys and little girls coming through with their lunch and then tell them, 'sorry you can’t take it,'” Winters said.

To prevent that, students will be notified in line before getting meals and parents will be notified when lunch balances are low.

“Obviously, we don’t want anyone to go hungry,” said Rochester School Committee Chair Michelle Cusalito, who asked Meagher if five meals is lenient.

According to Meagher, other districts generally limit charges to three meals or less for elementary school students.

Junior high and high school students have been limited to three charged meals for the past two years. The practice has worked well, but Superintendent Doug White noted a different approach is needed for younger students.

“There is a lot of differences between a junior high school student and a first grader,” White said.

The policy is still under review and will be sent back to the district’s regional school committee with comments from Mattapoisett, Marion, and Rochester committee members.

The next step will include developing steps to implement the policy.