My BEEF with the school lunch system...

Here I go off on another tangent that I probably only have parts of the information to, so I am saying that in advance.  I still have the right to my opinion and that is strictly what this is.  I am positive that my educator friends or those who work in the “system” can help me out here or point me in the right direction.  I am not an investigative reporter, but I can surely follow that career path if necessary.

So apparently, school lunches are now put on a card?  You pay an amount for them in advance that goes on an account.  That card gets swiped daily when you go through the line or purchase ala carte menu items.  (It is important to also state that is not just in reference to my previous school, but pretty much the schools nationwide.)  You can put $ on your card at the office, but not in the lunch line, like say your card doesn’t have enough money on it, but you have cash.  So, if your card doesn’t have enough $ on it, you are not allowed to pay cash for your school lunch at lunch time, you should have done that prior to lunch.  Even if you dangle the $ right there to show you have it and can pay for the lunch you are about to eat.

I do not know who makes the lunch rules.  If it varies per state, per district, whatever, I have no clue.  I am not about to pretend that I do know.  So I am hoping someone will enlighten me. 

I know that at some point all of my nieces and nephew who are still in school, have not had enough $ on their cards to get lunch.  I also know that in the Grade School you get a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich and a carton of milk if you do not have enough $, I am guessing that the same applies for the High School.  I also know that a card between siblings is shared, so if one is in the High School and one is in the Grade School, it is theoretically possible for one to spend a lot more $ (ala carte) then the other for lunch, which is neither here nor there, but it is a very quick way to go through the $ you do have on the card.

I do not know if an alert is sent home with the students when their cards reach a certain level.  Apparently a sheet gets sent home in the Grade School, but I think it may be too late.  I don’t know if parents can request they be alerted when it reaches a certain level so that their child is never without money to eat lunch?   It would seem that would be the logical avenue for parents and the school to take though.  In this day and age, there is SOME FORM, SOME TECHNOLOGICAL WAY to alert the parents, even if it is just a phone call. 

Here is why I am writing this.  Last week, a friend of mine mentioned that her daughter got her school lunch (she is not from around here, not even in the State of Illinois, so everyone calm down) and when she got to the person taking the cards, she did not have enough money on her card for lunch.  Her mom knew this, but just forgot in the hectic busyness that is commonplace amongst households in the mornings before school starts.  The lady taking the cards took her lunch tray and threw her lunch in the trash.  It is school policy that it cannot be re-served to anyone else.  Ok…I get that.  What I don’t get is this.  Are our school systems doing so well financially that they can afford to throw away food?  I am positive that we are one of very few countries who WASTE a tremendous amount of food daily.  I saw this with my own eyes on the cruise.  (On my ship alone, we threw away over 2000 pounds of food, PER DAY.  Due to United States law and regulations this food cannot be re-served, not even to the staff, not even to shelters.  Perfectly good food.  Food a family could easily and safely, eat on for at least a day or two.  14,000# of food PER WEEK on this one ship ALONE.)  Anyway, WHY can’t this child eat this if all you are going to do is throw it away?  There are kids, God forbid; who’s only meal of the day is this school lunch.  Is the cost of that lunch or rather the child who does not have enough money on their card, so detrimental to the district that their only option is to throw the lunch in the trash?  Did that $1.50-$2.00 lunch just put the district in further debt?  I highly doubt it.  But I don’t know how the system works or who governs it or whatever.  Seriously!  SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME HOW THIS WORKS!!!!!!!!!!

This particular school offers a cheese sandwich to kids who can’t buy their lunch that day.  Ok, that is nice.  The irony here in this particular situation is that the school sent a reminder earlier in the week that this was their state testing week and to make sure the kids were well rested and well fed.  It is entirely one thing to walk up to the line and be humiliated by being told your card does not have enough $ on it for you to get lunch.  (Sadly, this will also happen to you at the grocery store when you get older, for whatever reason, but regardless of your age it will still be humiliating.)  It is a separate thing to simply grab that tray and in front of all of this child’s peers, throw their lunch in the trash.  This could not have been handled in a better, less humiliating manner?

What do I want to do about it?  Maybe that was policy for the school.  Perhaps she was doing exactly as she was told.  I highly doubt her job depended on following that policy to a T, but I don’t know that either.  I just know that if it had been myself, I would have risked my job to not make a huge scene for this child (and she is just a child) as kids are brutal to one another now as it is, this would just add to it.

I am sure I am pissing someone off right now because I don’t have all the facts and that is fine.  Tell me how it works.  Explain so I can understand why schools have to do what they do.  I cannot accept something until I fully understand it.  This goes for ANYTHING!  I get it, policy is policy and if you make an exception for one, you do it for all and what is the point of having rules or policies.  What I do not get is when this applies to feeding a child.  No child should ever, ever be refused a meal while they are at school.  Ever.

A better system needs to be in place.  Unfortunately, daily, shit happens.  People forget.  We are humans, we make mistakes.  Maybe a parent was alerted and they still forgot.  I want to know when it became so financially detrimental to a school district to give a child a hot lunch that hasn’t been paid for yet.  WHEN did we become so wealthy as a Country that that the discarding of a perfectly edible lunch is mandatory and acceptable? 

Honest to God, someone, please help me understand this.