Posted on 02/13/2014 8:14:36 AM PST by cornfedcowboy
NORWALK, Iowa —A Norwalk 8th grader said she was humiliated Wednesday when she was denied a school lunch because there wasn't enough money in her account.
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“I was really embarrassed when I walked out of there, and then my friend she looked at me and she's like 'Where is your lunch tray?' I'm like 'They didn't give it to me,'” said Gillian Richardson.
Gillian’s mother, Pam Richardson, said her family has enough money to pay for her daughter's school lunches, but didn't get a notification from the school that the balance was negative.
“The policy of taking lunches away from kids is ridiculous, because no matter if they are 5 or they're 17 years old, it's not their responsibility. It's not their fault that their parents aren't paying the bills or can't pay the bills,” said Pam Richardson.
View this story.
Read more: http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iowa/student-humiliated-when-denied-school-lunch/24456248#ixzz2tDetUyap
(Excerpt) Read more at kcci.com ...
Solution: Put the payment cash register at the front of the line.
I agree it is not only humiliating but wrong. Put a lien on the house if you have to. Humuliate the parents/guardians.
Someone needs to be fired.
I agree, but will go one further. Get rid of the lunches all together. I went to Catholic School and had to bring our own lunches. Nobody seemed to go without lunch that way. Of course on occasion a child might have forgotten his or her lunch and the Mom was running into school to ensure she got it to them in time for lunch. On the VERY rare occasion when someone forgot to bring their lunch, kids would give parts of their lunch to the child. No big deal.
What bothers me most is that these parents took this story to the TV station. I remember that if our lunch account was empty that it was our fault, not parents or the schools.
Someone needs to be fired.
What? If you go to the grocery store and put a bunch of stuff in your cart and suddenly realize that you don’t have enough money, should the cashier be fired. I can’t believe the so called conservatives on here. Oh mean school expecting payment for food.
So if low income folks can get EBT cards to buy food, why do they also need free lunches?
is there a free lunch program in addition to a free food program?
is it illegal to bring a bag lunch now?
Yes, the parents.
It humiliates me that schools give out free lunches. It belittles my efforts, as a parent, to show my children that we should work to pay our own way, or eat peanut butter & jelly and an apple and a water, brought from home.
The parents claiming they didn’t know is a load of you know what. These days, the lunch account is online so the parents have 24/7 access to it and know when they need to add to it. Just like their kids’ grades and attendance is online so they have no excuse they didn’t know Johnny was failing or skipped school. Every parent knows that X amount will last X long. Same as it was last year. Same as it was the year before. Same as it was with all the siblings. It’s not rocket science. One of their Starbucks will pay for 2 lunches.
Mom & Dad have other responsibilities. By the 8th grade she should be able to take responsibility for keeping tabs on her lunch account balance.
Perhaps a little bit of “humiliation” and hunger will motivate her to assume a little responsibility.
As Rush is fond of saying,”This is a Teachable Moment!”
Of course, a cafeteria administrator with a lick of sense would have told her, “You have no account balance. Basic lunch & water for you today, no desert. Tomorrow with no Positive balance, Bread & Water. Next day, no “Bread” then no bread.”
Without even looking, I can guess the people are white.
Had they been a minority it would have never happened.
Some of the best lunches I had in Catholic School were the rare times I forgot mine, and couldn’t get a hold of my folks, to bail me out. No PBJ, baloney, or egg salad that day, and the only time I got a Twinkie, or some other unhealthy, but tasty snack ;)
Actually the answer is yes to all three.
Some schools will not allow the student to “brown bag” it. The give some lame excuse about how they must assure that the lunch meets federal dietary guidelines. Unspoken is that the school unions do not wish to lose their unionized cafeteria workers.
Easy to remedy this if the lunch ladies don’t want to take cash in the lunch room is for students to purchase lunch tickets. That way they’ll know how many lunches they have left, unlike a card which doesn’t show the balance.
I’m always amazed at this nation’s ability to turn the most inconsequential sh!t into a major crisis. Is it such a slow day in the news that a media outlet is actually reporting this? ROFL.
OR……bring a lunch from home instead of buying the crappy school lunches.
How does something like this make the news anyway?
Yes. Not only that but most schools have free breakfast for all kids so it's not like they're starving to death 3 hours later when lunchtime comes around. Plus the school doesn't have a way to verify the parents' incomes when they sign their kids up for free lunches at the beginning of the school year so a lot of those free lunch kids are from households that make more than you who are honest and paying for your kids' lunches. Many schools will give the delinquent account kids sack lunches of a baloney and cheese sandwich, an apple, a snack and milk which is usually better than the tray lunch. They know a sack lunch keeps the lawyers away.
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