Flawed process.
The correct process is that the children’s account should be debited before they walk away with the food. If they don’t have enough of a positive balance then at least some of the food can probably be returned for distro to another child rather than being tossed.
An even better process would be to check the account balance BEFORE the food is even distributed. This may not work in situations where price is determined by weight (salad bars, assuming the school has such a thing), but it would still be a good mitigation step.
Golly! Ya think?
Are we supposed to believe this is the first time ever that students have been given their lunches when they did not have money in the account? No, it's just the first time it made the tv news, recently. People with two functioning brain cells would have figured out a way to avoid this situation a long time ago.