STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. -- Forget pizza, hamburgers and macaroni and cheese.

Dozens of students at Steamboat Springs schools are getting peanuts, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches -- or nothing -- for lunch this week after the district cut off those with unpaid balances on their school lunch accounts.

Nutritional Services director Max Huppert said students owing $6 or more were not allowed to use the district's automated payment system to buy hot lunches when they returned to school Monday. The move affected about 25 elementary students and an unknown number of middle school students.

The affected elementary school students were given peanuts, sunflower seed and snack food instead, but the others received nothing.

Huppert told the The Steamboat Pilot and Today that about half of the nearly $10,000 owed to the district has since been paid. He said that parents should not have been surprised about what happened because the district has spent weeks sending out notifications reminding parents to pay off the balances.

One parent was upset that students had to suffer because of their parents' actions.

"I guess maybe I just have a problem with little kids getting sunflower seeds for lunch when their parents haven't paid. The thing is, parents forget, parents are sick or out of town," said Lorraine Morrison.

Huppert said all students had at least some food to eat.

"Nobody went hungry. They just weren’t able to come through the line and get the food they normally would," he said.