The credit crunch has hit school lunchrooms in the Des Moines area.

Des Moines school officials worry that higher prices and a troubled economy will combine to further drive up the number of students who hit the lunch line with no money in their lunch accounts.

The district was owed $56,700 for unpaid lunches when classes opened this fall, up 50 percent from the year before.

Students will not go hungry if they don't pay, district leaders say, but the rising tab will force changes in how lunchroom credit is handled.

"We don't want to put a child in the middle of that: 'I'm sorry you can't have lunch today because you don't have money in your account,' " said Sandy Huisman, the district's food and nutrition director. "But at the same time, we are running a business and need to make sure we have money to pay the bills."

The increase is driven by households where money is tight but income is more than the threshold that qualifies students for free or reduced-price lunches under federal nutrition programs. Monroe, Finley and Morris elementary schools have the highest numbers of students who owe lunch money.

"I can see, obviously, they need to get their money, but times are tough, too," said Gayle Murray, a Des Moines mother with children in elementary and middle schools.

She said school officials need to make sure families that qualify are aware of the government lunch programs and notify others when accounts are dry.

"I sometimes get behind because I lose track of when I owe money," Murray said.

Many Iowa school districts raised lunch prices this year to offset higher food costs. Des Moines' 65-cent increase, to $2.25 for a meal, was the first in six years.

Statistics: Free and reduced-price lunch numbers, school by school (PDF download)

The increase, coming during a sluggish economy and job losses that have put pressure on many families has the district braced for more unpaid lunch bills.

"You would assume there was some sort of net impact," school board member Teree Caldwell-Johnson said.

Of the district's 30,852 students, a majority - 64.5 percent - get their lunch free or at a reduced price, based on family income. Children from four-member households that take in less than $27,560 qualify for free lunches. The income figure is $39,220 for reduced-price lunches, which are sold for 40 cents.

School administrators expect the number of children in the lunch program to increase.

Some suburban school districts have policies in place to deal with students whose lunch accounts are empty. Those districts also have a smaller proportion of their children in the government lunch program - 20 percent in West Des Moines, for example.

Junior high and high school students cannot run up a lunch debt in the West Des Moines district.

At the elementary level, "we do get to the point where we tell them they can't charge anymore," said Beth Hanna, director of nutrition services.

"I do know in the past we've called parents and asked them to bring in a lunch, or we have sent letters to parents suggesting they send a sack lunch if they're not going to pay for their meals," she said.

Waterloo school officials allow elementary students five lunches on credit and middle school students two lunches. A cheese sandwich and milk is provided after that. High school students must pay to eat. About 58 percent of the district's students receive free or reduced-price lunches.

The Waukee school district also does not allow eighth- through 12th-graders to charge lunches. Elementary students are allowed three lunches without payment and then a warning letter is sent home. The child receives a cheese sandwich and milk if no payment is made or no lunch is sent from home.

School districts across the country have taken varied approaches on the issue:

- The Scottsdale, Ariz., school district, with $20,000 in unpaid accounts last year, ruled that an elementary student who didn't pay for lunch three consecutive days would be limited to a peanut butter sandwich and juice. Other school districts give students a cheese sandwich.

- Junior high students in Twin Falls, Idaho, get sack lunches when their accounts are unpaid. The sack lunches are later charged the price of a regular "hot" lunch.

- Lunch is no longer served in the Lafayette Parish, La., school district to students who don't prepay or pay that day for their meal. School officials implemented the policy after unpaid lunch accounts totaled $250,000 in 2006-07.

- Parent volunteers and teachers contributed money at an elementary school in South Carolina when hot lunches were replaced with cold sandwiches for children with no way to pay.

"We are unlike any other food service business because they don't give you food unless you pay for it," West Des Moines' Hanna said. "Ours is kind of the honor system, and it becomes very difficult, because how do you punish a child for what the parent refuses to do?"

No elementary students in Des Moines have been denied lunch, Huisman said. Middle and high school students have been told they can eat for a few days on credit but must then make good on their accounts or borrow money from a friend.

Des Moines officials have named a committee to explore ideas, but the majority of school board members say they will oppose the suggestion that children who don't pay don't eat.

Board members said they favor payment plans, better communication with families, and help from community groups to create an emergency fund for lunches.

"You take each case as it is and try to work it out with the family," board member Connie Boesen said. "But you're not going to turn away kids. That's a given. Kids do better when they have nutrition."