At Utah school, there really was no such thing as a free lunch
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/30/us/utah-school-lunches-snatched/index.html?hpt=us_c2
Uintah Elementary School in Utah found themselves in hot water after dozens of students went hungry this week. Salt Lake City School District officials state that they took the trays away from some of the students because they had negative balances in their accounts. Therefor, they could not pay for their lunches. To compensate, the school gave them fruit and milk.
According to officials and other students, there were many tears and upset students, as well as irate parents. School officials received fire for this act and later owned up to the fact that they made a mistake. The district will also be notifying parents about negative account balances on Monday.
This is elementary school. Lunch is free in our public schools now. Why would we still be enforcing payment for lunches after the government shutdown? This is ignorant as well as damaging to many kids' nutrition and stability. Lunch is imperative for the children so that they can be active and alert throughout the day, and in turn, meet the expectations that the school district sets for them on tests, and, in turn, represent the school to the fullest degree, as many of these establishments preach about.
I think the school went about this in a completely foolish way. As you said, these are little bitty elementary school kids, who likely know very little about money. Before taking away lunches from these kids, in the very least, the school should have notified parents of their negative lunch balances and told them to provide a sack lunch for their kids.
ReplyDelete