Weather we have kids in school or not we all pay some taxes to the school districts that we live in. I remember when I was first married and had kids and we qualified for reduced lunches. I also remember being "just above the threshold" of qualifying and what a struggle it was sometimes... it always seemed that it was cheaper then to pack a lunch for the kids than have them get a hot lunch at school. I also remember forgetting to send a check to add money to my children's lunch tickets. (not to mention I had to write 3 checks, one for each child's account)
I do not think that any of my children ever experienced getting lunch thrown out and given a "cheese" sandwich for not having enough money on their tickets for lunch because none of them ever let me forget to write the check more than one day in a row. That being said...I am appalled that school cafeterias are not only wasting good decent food that my and your tax dollars pay for and at the same time denying a growing child proper nutrition for their day at school because the lunch ticket is in negative funds.
I know that the notices that money is running out on the ticket or ticket is overdrawn get lost by kids, or the kids forget to give parents notices, not to mention that sometimes the first notice from the school was not a low balance notice but a negative notice balance. I also know that sometimes emergencies happen and those families that are just on the border of getting free or reduced lunches and not sometimes have financial emergencies and need a couple of days grace ( I know because I have been there) I also know that most parents who's children's lunch tickets run in the arrears do not let this happen on purpose... on the contrary, most of them are truly horrified when they find out and make things right as soon as possible.
Sometimes it is a matter of putting limitations on the card like only one lunch a day... (only buy your own) Maybe it is as simple of finding an alternate way of notifying parents of low or negative ticket balances such as a mass email going out to those parents when a low or negative account balance is flagged in the system (this could be an easy program to implement since so much is computerized these days)
Regardless of what the solution to the ticket issue is I can tell you that it is not throwing out perfectly good food and replacing it with a "cheese" sandwich. I also do not think the cafeteria worker that feels children should have good nutrition for their school day should fired for providing that.
I think this is a contradiction of society. In our society, we have gone from food vouchers for food stamps to a "debit" type card so food stamp recipients do not feel the "shame" or humiliation of needing to be on food stamps (a whole other issue I will not get into) but we are willing to humiliate a child with a sub standard nutritional lunch because they are negative in their account (usually by no fault of the child)
FIX the notification system to reduce the instances of low or negative balances on lunch tickets
FIX the system by which we determine the criteria for free or reduced lunch
DO NOT throw out perfectly good food and give a growing child CRAP to meet their nutritional needs of the day and DO NOT fire those who care about the children and their needs... It is usually not the child's fault they have low or negative balance on their lunch tickets.
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