Are there no soup kitchens?

[Gob]

A lunch lady at an Idaho school who gave a hungry 12-year-old a free hot meal after the girl said she had no money has been fired following the incident.

Dalene Bowden, who worked at Irving Middle School in Pocatello, Idaho, said she offered to pay the $1.70 (£1.14) lunch charge for the girl, but her supervisor refused the offer.

Ms Bowden was placed on leave pending a meeting of the district school board and a few days later received a letter informing her she had lost her job, according to reports.

She plans to seek legal advice, a report in Idaho State Journal said.

"I broke the rules, but I offered to pay for the meal and I don’t think I deserved to lose my job over it," the paper quoted her as saying.


The paper also quoted Shelley Allen, a spokeswoman for the District 25 schools board, as saying children who cannot afford to pay their lunch bill are usually provided with a snack but that kitchen workers are expected to remove their lunch tray.

Ms Bowden's story has received plenty of attention online following a petition started by Raushelle Goodin-Guzman, who appears not to know Ms Bowden but has children who attend schools in District 25.

The petition has so far had over 35,000 signatories

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 84251.html

[dales]

This year's Grinch award.

[RayThom]

"There is no such thing as a free lunch."

You give one needy urchin a meal and the next thing you know all needy urchins expect the same. And if you don't follow through you're an elitist snob who discriminates against the poor. Damned if you do... damned if you don't.

I hope Ms. Bowden has learned her lesson.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Unfortunately, we'll presumably never know what (if anything) would have happened if she'd paid for the lunch and THEN served it to the child. That would have been charitable.

Easy to hand out food when it doesn't cost you though - when someone else has paid for it.

As it was, she broke the rule by serving a lunch without receiving payment and (only when caught) "offered to pay". I can imagine how that went: "Well, if you're going to be like that, I'll pay for it if you want!"

[TPFKA@W]

I read that she has been offered her job back, "in the spirit of the season ". Uh-huh.

[BoSoxGal]

This is ridiculous - we should just feed children at school, and include that cost in the school budget for which all citizens pay taxes. Arguing about free lunches or breakfasts for poor children is a stupid waste of energy. Hungry kids can't focus or learn properly.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Just as it was when I was a lad in the UK - go to school, get a free lunch (unless you opted out and brought sandwiches)

[Bicycle Bill]

I read that she has been offered her job back, "in the spirit of the season ". Uh-huh.

If it were me, I'd be a little reluctant about accepting their offer.  You know that they are going to be keeping her under extremely close scrutiny, just looking for any little infraction that would be considered a more legitimate reason to dismiss her again.

-"BB"-

[TPFKA@W]

This is ridiculous - we should just feed children at school, and include that cost in the school budget for which all citizens pay taxes. Arguing about free lunches or breakfasts for poor children is a stupid waste of energy. Hungry kids can't focus or learn properly.

Yep, it ought to be a part of the program.

[TPFKA@W]

I read that she has been offered her job back, "in the spirit of the season ". Uh-huh.

If it were me, I'd be a little reluctant about accepting their offer.  You know that they are going to be keeping her under extremely close scrutiny, just looking for any little infraction that would be considered a more legitimate reason to dismiss her again.

-"BB"-

I'd tell them to shove it.

[Long Run]

The criteria for the free lunch program is pretty liberal, so it is more likely that this child simply did not go to school with enough money to buy lunch that day. This happened regularly in "our" day, kids being kids and all. Staff would just front the kid the meal, write it down, and collect the next day. But that was before common sense was driven out of the schools.

[dales]

....that was before common sense was driven out of the schools.

When my kids were in grade school (1980's 1990's) I thought the schools were goofy then.......now I believe they've gone from simple goofiness to a psychopathology that is destroying all that we've built up in the last 150 years or so.

I see it in some of the crap that my grandson has to swallow in 4th grade - - - my heart bleeds for the future.