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This happened to my son last year. I was furious because I had personally delivered a check to the school for $50 a few days prior. Due to their error my kindergartener was humiliated when they took all his food except the portion of corn and threw it away telling him he has no money.
He came home crying. While I understand the system they should come up with a better way to handle it with the kids.
Yep, Jmana...this same thing happened to my child. Even though wake county's policy is All U Can Eat, they don't follow this. They are gruff and unkind about it and embarrass the children.
Again, re: mylunchmoney - folks you can set the minimum $$acct balance to whatever you want. To let it stay at the low default amt is asking for trouble. It is fabulous site which allows for a lot of customizing - and yes, just like other sites, there can be glitches, delays.
You can't set a minimum if you are doing Pay As You Go. You can if you are doing Smart Pay (which is automatically taken from your acct.) I'm gun shy about auto payments, so I prefer PAYG, but I check it OFTEN.
We've been bitten by a longer then expected delay in a payment clearing and yes, I'd have to say my biggest complaint was the attitude of the cashier. My kids had no clue their account was low (as I'm usually on top of it) and were told, "It ain't my fault you ain't got no money" . The kids were like, "I never have money, I give you my lunch number and I eat my lunch!". I don't care if 99% of the class is in arrears, there is no need for acting like that towards a child! NOT COOL!
To me, this is outrageous!! I can't even believe it. Where I currently live if this happens the child gets an emergency lunch which is the same lunch and then the parent gets a note home what they owe! A kindergartener didn't get lunch because of this?!?! I can't even believe it. And the other woman saying they threw her childs lunch in the garbage can?!? Oh my. I wouldn't put up with that. I would definately let my feelings be known. Is this what the world has come to? Soggy veggies I bet and water? To the original poster, don't be so hard on yourself. Please. This should of been a minor nothing thing. Sorry this happened to you child. I have a 20 yr old and the youngest is 5. The fact that you are upset and appaled tells me you are a good Daddy. :-)
My daughter usually brings her lunch but once every couple weeks she buys a lunch. So the one day she went to buy she could not remember her lunch number so they served her the water/vegetable routine. She had money in her account but since she dows not use it every day she temporarily forgot. You would think they could do a name lookup but they are so inflexible.
I saw some posts where people suggest bring cash. My other daughter wanted to pay by cash one day but someone stole the money from her bookbag in the classroom before lunch. I would not recommend sending elementary school students to school with cash.
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The OP stated that she received an email that the account was low in money. From other posters it sound like you have many ways to ensure your kid has money in the account. Sounds like the OP forgot and she is now blaming the school. She should be happy that he got some form of lunch and nothing at all.
John
The OP clearly said they tried to replenish the account but the site was down. I have been trying to register with mylunchmoney.com for a week and it's been down every day until today. As if a full day of school at that age isn't enough they get denied a proper lunch for a simple mistake?? Clearly this is not a case of a family repeatedly not paying or trying to take advantage. I'm appalled that someone could be this harsh with a kindergartner. It makes me wonder if they have kids or ever try to help anyone but themselves. Compassion is important in a community and I'm sad to hear there seems to be a lack of it in school.
I have 3 sons that all graduated from Wake schools. Never once did they buy a yucky school lunch. They took a home-packed lunch every single school day. Making their lunches was my responsibility, not the school. I also wanted to control what they ate.
The school lunch people that treat children like this should be reprimanded. Why throw a child's lunch away when he/she is standing there hungry? And the food being wasted? How is that saving the school any money anyway? I think its just a humilating punishment for a child. This is totally wrong. Punishing a kid with vegetables? Only in America. There is an obese person everywhere I turn and now I have to think of children having their lunches throw away in front of them because of a $3 discrepancy?
First of all, I work in software and website development and if the website were any good it would NEVER be down and would not have so many technical "glitches". I wonder how much those amateur code monkeys got paid for building a piece of garbage website?
Secondly, what I want to know is why in the hell aren't the schools calling the parents to let them know their children are without lunch????
I send my son to school with lunch because we cut out all non-organic meats from our diet, but I wanted to bring him lunch on his birthday and told him I would be there at his lunchtime. The wrong lunch schedule was posted on the teacher's website and when it changed parents were not informed of that, so I showed up at his old lunchtime which was 20 minutes late. I find my son sobbing at a corner table with NO food or milk or anything. He said his teacher told him to just sit there and be quiet when he told her he did not have lunch. Needless to say, it took every ounce of control in my body not to knock that mean old hag on her butt.
Either feed the kids or call the parents or something!
WE pay for the educational system we have and all too often this system is just kicking our kids in the teeth.
The cashier was WRONG in embarrassing the child, who has no real conception of how paying for things works, and it's not as if he personally was trying to "pull one over" on them. Also, throwing away good food is completely senseless and wastes not only food but money. If $3 were so precious to the school budget, why throw away good food?! Better training of lunch cashiers should be a top priority!
Also, it sounds like this sort of incident is not so uncommon that they wouldn't have a backup plan in place. Yes, I understand the "give em an inch, they'll take a mile" philosophy (I used to manage a retail store and saw people pull every trick in the book to get something free or cheaper). But the difference here is, the children who come to the register are not the ones at fault if their parents made a mistake (or in the case of the OP, if the actual problem was with a website). I can't imagine why there isn't a "mulligan" system where a child gets ONE "gimme" when this happens the first time, with someone (not the cashiers, who apparently have the people skills of Neanderthals) to track the incident and let the parents know what happened, so it can be rectified. Particularly right at the end of the school year, what's the harm in giving the food to the kid instead of to the trash can?
I hope people will contact principals over these incidents to move toward a more efficient yet compassionate system, considering that there is a "guilty party" here (the lunch money website) beyond the control of either parent or child. I agree that vegetables and water is fine for a lunch, but if the cashiers are being unsympathetic about it, that's little help for a child who's embarrassed in front of his peers for reasons he doesn't understand.
Also, throwing away good food is completely senseless and wastes not only food but money. If $3 were so precious to the school budget, why throw away good food?!
The food workers are probably legally required to throw away food once it's been served/distributed, since they wouldn't be able to serve it to another student. That doesn't make it right, however.
In many cafeterias, students have to go through the cashier's station FIRST. With that kind of system, if there's a problem it can be addressed before students are handed a tray full of food.
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. The kids were like, "I never have money, I give you my lunch number and I eat my lunch!". I don't care if 99% of the class is in arrears, there is no need for acting like that towards a child! NOT COOL!
Another problem with my kindergartener
Healthy e-Lunch Kids
Better training of lunch cashiers should be a top priority!
