CHULA VISTA, Calif., June 1 (UPI) -- Officials at a California school district say the cheese sandwich they provide to children with overdue lunch bills is an effective if bland collection tactic.

Four years ago, parents in Chula Vista, Calif., had an overdue lunch tab of $285,000. But since the cafeteria started giving children whose parents were behind no options but a cheese sandwich for lunch, the tab has dropped to $67,800, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Friday.

"It's a problem across the country," Dennis Doyle, Chula Vista's assistant superintendent, told principals and parents recently, the Union-Tribune reported. "How do you make sure that you're not letting children go hungry and yet at the same time you don't end up with a $300,000 debt?"

Critics say the policy stigmatizes children whose parents have not paid.

The policy doesn't apply to poor children, who get free lunches.

"If you're paying the debt of the families in your highest income bracket who should be paying for their children's meals, that's coming out of the (cafeteria) fund, which is all the poor kids and everybody else who are paying for the meals of those who are most able to pay for themselves," Doyle said in the newspaper report.