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My school district fired me after I gave a free meal to a student who couldn’t pay
The Washington Post's Post Everything ^ | June 11, 2015 | Della Curry, former lunch lady, entrepreneur, wife and mother of two.

Posted on 06/11/2015 3:35:41 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

There is a simple solution to ensuring that every child receives a nutritious meal: provide taxpayer-funded free lunches for all of them.

During my year as an elementary school kitchen manager, kids came through my lunch line without money for all kinds of reasons: Some lost the check their parents had given them. Some had divorced parents who weren’t communicating. Others had single parents who just got busy and forgot to give them money. My school district mandates that, after three incidents in a row, kitchen supervisors take away that child’s hot lunch and replace it with a slice of cheese on a bun. I refused to do that, and was fired.

My school district isn’t unique. Across the country, schools are using cheese sandwiches to punish children for lunch debts. They say it’s necessary to balance cafeteria budgets. Not only is a cheese-sandwich meal unhealthy, it’s humiliating. Children are teased by classmates who perceive them as “poor.” Others cry as they watch their hamburger and French fries swapped for a slice of cheese. I saw one first grader choose to go hungry rather than suffer that shame....

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; US: Colorado
KEYWORDS: food; michelleobama; schoollunch; welfare
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Let me get this straight: We already spend more on SNAP (aka food stamps), WIC and the other food-related poverty programs than most countries spend on their entire governments (more than many countries GDPs) but these folks want us to pay for free meals for every pre-K to 12th grade student in the United States? Why stop there? Shouldn't "normal" kids get the same menu as the Obama daughters? Aren't college and trade school students important? As a disabled person, shouldn't I be getting three delicious, nutritious meals a day delivered to my door? Don't the old people in care centers deserve free meals? How about the homeless, heroin addicts and the winos? I'll bet all the prisoners would like an upgrade to prime rib, lobster and cronuts.
1 posted on 06/11/2015 3:35:42 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Typical liberal: She gave that which was not hers to give. If she had reached in her pocket and bought a lunch for a kid who forgot his lunch money that’s one thing, to just hand out your employer’s stock is another.


2 posted on 06/11/2015 3:37:56 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (This is known as "bad luck". - Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Grilled cheese in unhealthy?


3 posted on 06/11/2015 3:38:38 AM PDT by mylife ("The roar of the masses could be farts")
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To: mylife

No, but it isn’t even grilled cheese, usually, just a piece of cheese on a plain hamburger bun.


4 posted on 06/11/2015 3:40:43 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You can help: https://donate.tedcruz.org/c/FBTX0095/)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Did she pay for that out of her own pocket?

No?

Then it’s theft.


5 posted on 06/11/2015 3:40:43 AM PDT by RandallFlagg ("When you have to shoot, SHOOT! Don't talk." --Tuco)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

My understanding is that she paid for every meal that she gave out. She stole nothing.

The district fired her for not following through on punishing kids for the sins of their parents.


6 posted on 06/11/2015 3:42:25 AM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults)
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To: mylife

It’s plastic cheese she had to give out to kids. No nutrition whatsoever, more or less.

Probably less.


7 posted on 06/11/2015 3:43:18 AM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Many schools do not even allow brown bag lunches anymore.

Those that do demand that they meet some arbitrary government nutritional guideline. If the lunch fails to meet that guideline they take the lunch away from the child too.

It is all insanity at the liberal level.


8 posted on 06/11/2015 3:47:18 AM PDT by EBH (And the angel poured out his cup...)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

Exactly.


9 posted on 06/11/2015 3:50:18 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Which has exactly the same nutritional value as one that is grilled. Just less enjoyment factor.


10 posted on 06/11/2015 3:51:01 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: EBH

11 posted on 06/11/2015 3:51:57 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You can help: https://donate.tedcruz.org/c/FBTX0095/)
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To: Sherman Logan

There is no nutrition in plastic cheese.


12 posted on 06/11/2015 3:52:55 AM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults)
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To: Jonty30

Do you have evidence of that? If so, I’ve been misinformed.


13 posted on 06/11/2015 3:53:27 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: Jonty30

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 slice (19 g)
Per Serving % Daily Value*
Calories 60

Calories from Fat 36

Total Fat 4g 6%

Saturated Fat 2.5g 13%

Polyunsaturated Fat 0g

Monounsaturated Fat 0g

Cholesterol 15mg 5%

Sodium 200mg 8%

Potassium 0mg 0%

Carbohydrates 2g 1%

Dietary Fiber 0g 0%

Sugars 1g

Protein 3g

Vitamin A 2% · Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 20% · Iron 0%

Read more: Calories in Kraft Foods, Inc. - American Cheese Singles, Sandwich Cheese | Nutrition and Health Facts http://www.caloriecount.com/calories-kraft-american-cheese-singles-i99794#ixzz3ckZ0ZBlP

Not my favorite food at all, but not without nutrition.


14 posted on 06/11/2015 3:56:10 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I can almost gurantee this was not the reason she was fired. If you have a good employee who breaks the rules you council them. You don’t fire them. If you have a bad employee who breaks the rules you document it and fire them. (In my case I had to council them, put a letter in their file, then, if “it” continued we’d develop and sign an improvement plan. Only then, when the activity in question continued, could I fire them. I would always call them in, pull out the signed plan and ask if they’d complied. “Well, no but...” No but’s. Did you or didn’t you? Then I’d ask what action I had to take. They’d reluctantly say “fire me.” I’d say how sorry I was but would you please come with me. Oddly, they always acted elated when I fired them. Without exception. Weird.)


15 posted on 06/11/2015 3:56:49 AM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
My school district mandates that, after three incidents in a row, kitchen supervisors take away that child’s hot lunch and replace it with a slice of cheese on a bun.

Are they taking away an already prepared hot lunch and throwing it in the trash and handing the kid a cold cheese sandwich instead? If that’s the case, it seems a bit wasteful not to mention a bit unfair to the kid. Go after the parent(s)/gaurdian for getting behind on paying for the lunches but don’t punish the kid.

But I do not agree that the answer is to provide tax payer funded free lunches for every child. I also think that rules against brown bagging are beyond stupid.

16 posted on 06/11/2015 3:56:51 AM PDT by MD Expat in PA
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To: EBH

The dirty little secret here is that school lunch programs have nothing to do with nutrition, health or anything of that sort. For every kid who gets a free lunch, there is an entire industry of food suppliers who lobby heavily for this crap because they make a ton of money off it.


17 posted on 06/11/2015 3:58:01 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ( "It doesn't work for me. I gotta have more cowbell!")
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To: Gen.Blather

My first wife and her boss kept putting off talking to and working to terminate an employee who broke all kinds of rules, was tardy, left early and took over long lunch breaks, etc. One day she came in and declared that she had cancer. I told my wife “you can’t fire her now, that’ll look like discrimination and retaliation.” That woman had a guaranteed job from then on.


18 posted on 06/11/2015 4:03:43 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You can help: https://donate.tedcruz.org/c/FBTX0095/)
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To: Jonty30

If she paid for it, it wasn’t a free meal.


19 posted on 06/11/2015 4:05:39 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (This is known as "bad luck". - Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Sherman Logan

I could be wrong in what I have read on it, but that is what I have read.


20 posted on 06/11/2015 4:07:36 AM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults)
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