Utah school wastes food

[Chris James]

I get it, bills remain unpaid, but why take it out on the kids?

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/30/22504777-reports-lunches-seized-from-utah-schoolkids-because-of-unpaid-bills?lite

Yes, of course food that has been served cannot be put back. The cafeteria manager is responsible for not checking the kid's accounts before serving the meal. To take the food away from a hungry child is tantamount to child abuse. If they are going to toss it why not allow the kids to eat?

I am not going to get into the racial or religious profiling of these kids, but I imagine if they were Mormon this would not be an issue. Utah is nearly a religious state and as such seems to make their own rules on conduct.

I am one for free education and that includes a free lunch. Hungry kids cannot concentrate on their studies so this action is counterproductive. Schools need to stop this bullshit and get on with the mandate they have from the taxpaying parents.

[DesDownunder]

Well, that's a new way to say that the administration is out to lunch.

The system failed? They want to know where and how the system failed?

Immoral, uncompassionate, hardhearted, and authoritarian come to mind, not to mention draconian attitudes.

Oh, and it probably fits in with the free market capitalist system of dog eat dog...only now it's been extended to lunch.

Does the school have a course in mismanagement, or are they relying on the example they are setting during lunch period?

[Cole Parker]

I thought it rather funny how the principal rather self-aggrandizingly stated that they never let a kid go without milk and some fruit after just having apologized for taking more appealing lunch trays away from them. I'm not sure he really got it.

C

[Paul_and_Paco]

All I can really say is Wow! These administrators are trying to extract money from 5th graders? Shame! Those lunch payment accounts should be setup to be paid by their parents, and the deficits dealt with, only with them! By their own admission they said the bills were allowed to go up-paid for a week, so they must have extra food supplies on hand.

As for wasting the food that was served... why did they serve it, then take it back? Why did they not let the kids eat... then advise them to have their parents call the school before serving them again? No wasted food.

Idiots.

[Cynus]

As a kid who grew up in the Utah school system, I'm actually quite shocked by this. Admittedly, I grew up in a different school district, but still, my experience was very different as a kid.

I was the pickiest eater alive, and I often wouldn't eat the lunch provided to me, and instead of allowing me to waste the food, I often had one of the lunch ladies doing everything she could to convince me to eat it, even calling my parents on occasion to try and get me to eat lunch. I never actually got in trouble, they were just concerned that I wasn't eating.

This is ridiculous, and I am appalled, once again, for the actions of the people in the state that I live in.

[EleCivil]

Yeah...this is stupid.

I understand that there are a lot of state and national laws governing the free lunch program. If a school gets caught giving a free lunch to a kid who doesn't qualify for the program, the State Secretary of Fiscal Bullshit's "poor people are mildly comfortable" alarm goes off and the school gets fined a billion dollars. But this isn't how you handle that.

About 90% of my kids qualify for free lunches, so collecting money doesn't come up all that often. When it does...we find a way around it, because we don't want our students going hungry.

Officially, we're supposed to give kids who are behind on their meal accounts an "alternative lunch" - plain balogna on white bread with a cup of water. We've had some kids behind on their accounts. We've never actually given them prison food. Because that's stupid. It makes the kids feel bad for something they didn't do wrong, and puts more work on the cafeteria staff who now have to prep alt. meals and keep track of who gets them.

You feed the kid and mail home a bill. This should all be taken care of in the office, between admins and parents. No reason to involve the kid at all. Not singling them out or taking food out of their hands or "punishing" them.

[Cynus]

http://myfox8.com/2014/02/06/man-steps-up-pays-off-students-negative-lunch-account-balances/

[Lugnutz]

Inspirational.

[Guest Dabeagle]

That guy is the Batman.