No Free Lunch in Utah Kids!

[hambirg]

It looks like two employees have been put on leave. Good. I hope who ever is responsible gets fired.

http://www.startribune.com/nation/242884641.html

"The district has apologized to outraged parents and said it was working to ensure a similar incident didn't happen again."

"A district policy requires that parents be given time to respond to account shortfalls."

"To me, this rises to the level of bullying," State Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross said. "These children were humiliated in their own school, in front of their classmates."


BBM. . .I agree.

ETA. . .more info here.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57472249-78/district-lunch-lunches-students.html.csp

 

[SailorMoon]

I'm one of those who prefers animals to humans most any day. Not saying I would not save a human, but there are sick and uncaring and evil humans out there. My animals are glad to see me everyday and never have a bad word to say to me.

Our schools provide a free breakfast to everyone, and I believe if you can't/don't have funds for lunch you get a peanut butter sandwich. Someone mentioned allergies and thinking about it, that doesn't make much sense, but that's what they used to do anyway.

They should not have thrown out the lunches. That is uncalled for. I monitor my kid(s) (down to one in school) account and saw where he had been charged for 2 lunches. Quickly called and it was corrected.

ETA - Busy here and just realized what someone posted above - the lunches were to have been charged and wouldn't have been free. It's not the kids fault. I live paycheck to paycheck and some days don't have a $1. And school lunches aren't cheap anymore. Back in the day they were .40 cents. Ours are $1.95 for lunch, and $2.20 for the snack line. No idea what our "snack line" is, but you can bet I'm finding out when I get home!!

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

Utah District Hears Why School Lunches Were Taken

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/t/story/utah-district-hears-school-lunches-22370653?source=hp

 

[kincaid]

I just can not wrap my head around the decision to throw out all that food, while upsetting and humiliating young children who had no control over the funds in the first place. There was definitely a better way to deal with this, that didn't include wasting the food and the money it cost to make it and then replace it with an "alternative".

I'm not a fan of what was done, IMO, the accounts should just have been allowed to go into the negative, perhaps with a fee for a negative account to encourage the parents not to float the payments.

But I do have to argue that these aren't exactly 'young' children. The kids mentioned in the articles were 11 years old. I know when my son was 11 years old, he was more than capable of managing a simple lunch account. That's the age you teach kids consequences and responsibility when managing money.

One article said that the school district had $15,000 in unpaid cafeteria fees. That's a lot of money that's not being paid. I know a lot of school cafeterias allow students to get extras on top of their lunches and I really wonder if this is the extra spending that's catching parents off guard. I just don't think it's fair for the school to be floating that money to parents. If parents are giving their child $10 a week for 5 $2 lunches and the child then buys extra junk food and is short by the end of the week- the parents should be cracking down on the child's spending, not screaming at the school because the kid can get lunch with a negative account. There's no indication these were low income kids missing meals at home. It seems far more the only issue was the kids' being embarrassed and their parents being unwilling to take responsibility for properly funding their children's lunch accounts.

 

[kdblaisdell]

I know that, at our school, if the parent makes contact and lets us know there's an issue, we will do whatever to help. They can also apply for free and reduced lunch any time they need to.

 

[LinasK]

This is such a heartbreaking story. No child should ever go without food in their tummies while in a public school. I understand they were given fruit and milk, but why waste the trays? Makes no sense to me. Very bad decision on the part of the nutrition coordinator (whomever thought this a better idea). There was no need to waste food and humiliate the children to get their message across

Yeah, just how is wasting food teaching them a lesson? And the children shouldn't be penalized for the lack of money on the account- contact the parents!!!:banghead::banghead::banghead:

 

[LinasK]

eta: bbm

I don't think they should have thrown the food away, but only since that's incredibly wasteful and sends a terrible message, imo. But I don't think it's "humiliating." My son has been refused service or served nothing or a cheese sandwich before because he forgot to tell me his lunch money was low. He snags half a sandwich or something else from one of his friends (or not) and moves on with his day. I think it's as big a deal as the adults make it. jmo

I think it would be humiliating to an elementary school child to have their tray snatched from their hands in front of everyone because their family was too poor to pay.

 

[airplanelamp]

Has this been posted already? Great gesture.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/h.../24297388/-/1497csxz/-/index.html?source=KPRC

In his 10 years as a mentor and tutor, a local man has always done his best to meet the needs of the students in his life.

That's exactly what Kenny Thompson did Monday when he learned that some children at Houston's Valley Oaks Elementary School who had negative balances on their lunch accounts were receiving different lunches than the other kids: cold cheese sandwiches instead of a full tray of food.

He was spurred to take action after hearing last week that dozens of Utah students, whose accounts were delinquent, had their lunches taken and thrown away.

 

[Karmady]

I think it would be humiliating to an elementary school child to have their tray snatched from their hands in front of everyone because their family was too poor to pay.

Got a link to where the kids were poor?

 

[kincaid]

Got a link to where the kids were poor?

According to Greatschools.com, Uintah Elementary School only has 12% of the students receiving free or reduced price lunches, well below the state average of 38%. By all indications, this is a school in a middle class part of town with good test scores and very little poverty.

I don't think the kids weren't embarrassed because their parents were too poor to afford lunch, they were embarrassed their classmates might think they were poor. Unfortunately, status means a lot to kids these days.

 

[Elley Mae]

I don't know that all schools are up to par with the registers and how the kids pay for their breakfast and lunch meals but in most cases the kids walk up to the register with the tray of food in front of them and punch in their pin number. They punch in their pin (no other kids know if they are receiving a full pay lunch, discounted lunch, or a free lunch. Only the staff in the cafeteria that work the register can see that on the register. The kid hands the cashier the money owed ( the kid knows ahead how much will be expected at the register, they are not ignorant till the last minute.) It's not like adults going to the grocery store and not having the money to pay for the food you have placed on the belt. They know before hand what is expected at the end of the line. The ones that don't have money normally say something if they are without their funds that day. I have said before if they don't have money for the paid for(hot) lunch they get a free (cold) lunch. See if the grocery store lets you walk with the cold food for free. jmo idk

 

[lisser]

In this particular case though, the school had recently implemented a new system, that failed to notify parents that their accounts were low or in arrears. It seems like the accounts are prepaid and that the kids don't necessarily know how much is in them at any given time. I would not expect my 8 year old to keep track of how much money was in her food account each day.

Regardless of who was responsible for ensuring that the accounts were up to date, (and yes, I agree that the onus is on the parents for that one), the food that was already handed to the children should never have been taken away. The parents should have been provided "notice" in writing that their account was overdue, just like any other biller is required to do before stopping a service.

 

[hambirg]

In this particular case though, the school had recently implemented a new system, that failed to notify parents that their accounts were low or in arrears. It seems like the accounts are prepaid and that the kids don't necessarily know how much is in them at any given time. I would not expect my 8 year old to keep track of how much money was in her food account each day.

Regardless of who was responsible for ensuring that the accounts were up to date, (and yes, I agree that the onus is on the parents for that one), the food that was already handed to the children should never have been taken away. The parents should have been provided "notice" in writing that their account was overdue, just like any other biller is required to do before stopping a service.

I agree. The school says they sent out notices on Monday and the food was taken from the children on Tuesday. The district says that shouldn't have happened as their own policy says they have to give parents time to pay. Some parents claim they didn't receive notices, if they had they would have paid. There was one parent in one of the articles up thread somewhere that said he did receive a notice. He attempted to top up the account online through the new system and was unable to do so.

So, MOO there were many things going wrong here. I don't think this was a case of parents trying to get one over on the school lunch room. Regardless, the lunches shouldn't have been taken away from the children and thrown in the trash. Who pays for them then? What does that teach these children? I would feel ok with the children receiving the alternative lunch IF they were notified beforehand. But to take the lunch away from them after they already had it and throw it away is just wrong!

Btw, all school lunches are subsidized, even for students paying "full price." It benefits the school to sell those lunches. I wonder if the school still collected the subsidy for the lunches they threw in the trash.

 

[Elley Mae]

In this particular case though, the school had recently implemented a new system, that failed to notify parents that their accounts were low or in arrears. It seems like the accounts are prepaid and that the kids don't necessarily know how much is in them at any given time. I would not expect my 8 year old to keep track of how much money was in her food account each day.

Regardless of who was responsible for ensuring that the accounts were up to date, (and yes, I agree that the onus is on the parents for that one), the food that was already handed to the children should never have been taken away. The parents should have been provided "notice" in writing that their account was overdue, just like any other biller is required to do before stopping a service.

When the cashier looks down at the screen to see the pin entered the students account page appears and with in that information is the balance left,(it's pretty apparent for the cashier to see) the cashier usually tells the student when the account is low. The cashier would tell the student that their account was getting low, the little ones would get a note sent home. Now keep in mind that the kids on the free lunch will never miss a meal, it's in the system for the school year. The discounted kids paid like 40 cents about 5-6 years ago when lunches were 1.25.

I don't know when the phone calls started that had to remind parents that their kids need to eat during the day, but I do find that to be ridiculous. I really wish there was a test that one had to take to be a parent, it would end a lot of needless b.s. that is expected of others in raising their kids. jmo idk

 

[Karmady]

When the cashier looks down at the screen to see the pin entered the students account page appears and with in that information is the balance left,(it's pretty apparent for the cashier to see) the cashier usually tells the student when the account is low. The cashier would tell the student that their account was getting low, the little ones would get a note sent home. Now keep in mind that the kids on the free lunch will never miss a meal, it's in the system for the school year. The discounted kids paid like 40 cents about 5-6 years ago when lunches were 1.25.

I don't know when the phone calls started that had to remind parents that their kids need to eat during the day, but I do find that to be ridiculous. I really wish there was a test that one had to take to be a parent, it would end a lot of needless b.s. that is expected of others in raising their kids. jmo idk

My youngest gets a hand stamp starting three days or so before he breaks the bank. Doesn't stop him from forgetting anyway, though. Maybe he's just got a thick skin, but as I posted before, he's gotten no lunch and lunch taken away at the end of the line before -- several times -- and could care less.

 

[TrackerSam]

'Lunch angel' pays kids' overdue accounts at elementary school
As a tutor and mentor at Valley Oaks Elementary School in Houston for over 10 years, Kenny Thompson has taken pride in helping out kids. So on Monday, when he found out that over 60 students at his school were eating cold sandwiches for lunch because of overdue funds on their accounts, he decided to pay off the negative balance. All $465 of it.

http://www.today.com/moms/lunch-angel-pays-kids-overdue-accounts-elementary-school-2D12062213

 

[Hejlena]

And I can't get my school to *stop* giving my 9 year old son lunches-on credit-when he decides he didn't "feel like" eating cold lunch that day. Go figure...