Outrage after student lunches thrown out at Utah school

[flowers]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25972953

According to Salt Lake City school officials, on Monday a nutrition manager arrived at Uintah Elementary to investigate what it described as a high number of negative balances on the accounts students use to pay for lunches prepared and served by the school.

The nutrition manager and another school employee began calling parents with negative balances in an effort to recoup payment, the school system said.

Then, on Tuesday, students who had queued up and were served lunch only to arrive at the tills and show negative balances were told to give back the lunches.
'Bullying'

The lunches were thrown in the rubbish, because once food is served it cannot be given to another student, the school officials said.

"People are upset, obviously, by the way this has been handled because it's really needless and quite mean," said parent Erica Lukes, whose 11-year-old daughter reported that her pizza had been taken away.

And some parents reported their accounts were not, in fact, in arrears, and the official had made a mistake.

Mr Olsen told the Salt Lake City Tribune the district believed the nutrition manager made the decision to throw out the lunches but an investigation was ongoing.

On Thursday, two Utah state senators vowed to address the school policies if the school officials failed to.

"I get that the school needs to be paid," said Senator Todd Weiler. "But this was bullying."

Schools in other states have taken similar actions. In the last year, students in Massachusetts, Indiana, Maine and Kentucky had lunches taken from them and discarded.

[happyg]

I saw this on the news, and the parents were outraged, and rightly so. Why couldn't they feed the kids, and then, charge the parents later?

 Another issue that bothered me is having the food thrown away. I hate to throw out good food, and got mad at my kids and grandkids when they overload their plates. If I have a pet peeve, that is one of them. I see so many people waste food, and it bugs the hell out of me. Being from a household of 12 people tends to do that to me. These workers weren't teaching the kids a darn thing, except how to embarrass them. ^-^

[Chieftain]

Regardless if you think this was right or wrong, this school system employee likely was following instructions.  These things do not just happen in a vacuum.  Someone in charge set up this policy.

[happyg]

Regardless if you think this was right or wrong, this school system employee likely was following instructions.  These things do not just happen in a vacuum.  Someone in charge set up this policy.

I doubt they are told to do it in front of the children. If so, the school needs to be sued, and the policy needs to be changed. Hungry kids can't concentrate and learn.

[Rapunzel]

Regardless if you think this was right or wrong, this school system employee likely was following instructions.  These things do not just happen in a vacuum.  Someone in charge set up this policy.

Turns out the school never told the parents the kids lunch fund was depleted so the parents didn't know it was time to refill the account. In my day we took lunch money with us to school every day - or a brown bag... what's with these "accounts"

[Rapunzel]

Oh and they don't charge the child's account until after the food tray has been served up so the child got his or her food and went to pay, the money was not there so since the food had already been dished up they took the trays and dumped the food since they could not give it to someone else.

[happyg]

Turns out the school never told the parents the kids lunch fund was depleted so the parents didn't know it was time to refill the account. In my day we took lunch money with us to school every day - or a brown bag... what's with these "accounts"

I don't know what the policy is here, but one day, my granddaughter called me to bring her lunch money or she couldn't eat. I don't know how they supplement their meals, but will ask when they come over. I was mad they didn't give her a tab. Most of the kids at her school have a lot of money, including her parents. I doubt anyone stiffs them over a lunch. Besides, the low income kids get free meal that those other students' parents pay for.

[Rapunzel]

I don't know what the policy is here, but one day, my granddaughter called me to bring her lunch money or she couldn't eat. I don't know how they supplement their meals, but will ask when they come over. I was mad they didn't give her a tab. Most of the kids at her school have a lot of money, including her parents. I doubt anyone stiffs them over a lunch. Besides, the low income kids get free meal that those other students' parents pay for.

I have a friend who used to volunteer at one of our local schools to work the school lunch period. She finally quit because of how the school treated the poor kids who didn't have money for their lunches.   She wanted to buy some of the kids their lunch and was told she wasn't allowed to do so.