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So who is going to staff the swipe/code/thumbprint system at the start of the line?
The food waste is really not the issue, they would more then likely toss out the overrun food anyway. Once food goes on to tray they have to toss it, by health code rules.
If you called, wrote, send notes home with student for 4 days, and then what is the alternative? Keep feeding them without getting paid for it?
My son schools does not do a head / meal counts, (and not sure the teachers would like to add Lunch account monitor to there list of things to do in the morning.)
I live in Salt Lake City, and when my daughter's lunch balance (in middle school) was negative, she was given a note that said she couldn't have any more lunches until the balance was paid, with additional money put into her account to pay for future lunches. She brought it home, gave it to me, and I sent her to school with a $20.00 the next day (the students take the money to the office to give to the secretary to put into their lunch funds). In other words, the student was quietly notified, and no lunch had to then be taken away.
By the way, it's ridiculous to take away food just to trash it. Figure out a way to not give food to those with negative balances to start with. But it was the school who WASTED 40 lunches, which isn't just wasting the food, but also wasting the money used to purchase that food. Once the school realized that those 40 students had negative balances but had already been given the food, they should have let the students finish the food (since the only other place the food could go, by law, was in the trash) and then they should have immediately printed up notes for the students to take home, and made sure that those students did not receive a lunch the next day. We're talking about starving kids and food being thrown in the trash! Absolutely ridiculous.
flyonpa: At my elementary school, middle school, and high school, you paid for your food before you were given it. The cafeterias had multiple lines, with the lunch ladies each operating a cash register, and handing you a plate of food after you paid. In my college, there was one person sitting at a table near the cafeteria entrance, and students would only have to wave their lunch card in front of a machine in order for the machine to recognize them. It would give an instant read-out to the person sitting there if the card had zero money on it. It took only a second or two for each person. The line of students to get in was never at a stand still, it was always people slowly walking, swiping their card as they walked, and continuing into the cafeteria. This is a simple system that can be used by all schools without having to place the responsibility on teachers, and it would be far less wasteful, and less embarrassing for the students, to just have the lady say to a student, "Dear, before you can go into the cafeteria, you need to go to the office." The student goes to the office, the secretary tells her that her lunch account is at zero or negative balance, and the child is given a note to take home. Done.
Last edited by MisfitBanana; 01-30-2014 at 12:43 PM..
So who is going to staff the swipe/code/thumbprint system at the start of the line?
The food waste is really not the issue, they would more then likely toss out the overrun food anyway. Once food goes on to tray they have to toss it, by health code rules.
If you called, wrote, send notes home with student for 4 days, and then what is the alternative? Keep feeding them without getting paid for it?
My son schools does not do a head / meal counts, (and not sure the teachers would like to add Lunch account monitor to there list of things to do in the morning.)
So your suggestion is to keep it the way it it. Same kids with negative balance walking throught he line, select their food and someone throwing it out at the checkout. DO YOU SEE THE FLAWS IN THIS THINKING?
The backlash this NJ school district got was national news (especially the part about throwing out the food) but do you see them being a headliner like Uintah for throwing out food? My guess is they have worked out a system to avoid throwing out food.
One can debate on the issue of deadbeat parents who don't want to pay for lunch when they can afford to but the idea of just throwing out the food is an outrage.
If these kids could not pay the parents should have applied for the Federal Free lunch program. In our area elementary kids with outstanding balances over a certain amount would be given PB&J. High School kids over that amount would get nothing. Sorry if that sounds mean but some parents just need to assume responsibility. In our district we can pay into kids accounts on line AND see their balance.
If these kids could not pay the parents should have applied for the Federal Free lunch program. In our area elementary kids with outstanding balances over a certain amount would be given PB&J. High School kids over that amount would get nothing. Sorry if that sounds mean but some parents just need to assume responsibility. In our district we can pay into kids accounts on line AND see their balance.
I don't know if it's an issue of the children's parents not being able to afford the food or being irresponsible.
"According to Jason Olsen, a Salt Lake City District spokesman, the child-nutrition department realized some students' families had outstanding balances on Monday, but the department's manager wasn't able to notify the school until after lunch had been served on Tuesday. So the department did what any humane, understanding person would do: they snatched the meals from the hungry kids." - a reporter on Gawker.
If the school wasn't able to be notified until after Tuesday's lunch was already served, it would be interesting to know if the parents were notified before Tuesday afternoon that their children's accounts were empty. Either way, the school should have dealt with it in some way other than taking the lunches away and then throwing them in the trash. If the money was going to be wasted anyway (the food being thrown away), then it may as well have been "wasted" by going in the students' bellies.
This is one of the reasons I think school lunches should be free for all students. The kids are required by law to be there, so their breakfast, lunch, transportation and all other expenses should be provided. We don't charge prisoners for their meals, so why charge school kids? Why should prisoners be treated better then students?
Also kids can't learn, if they are not properly nourished. Food is just a part of the cost of educating the student.
Anyway, as I recall when I went to school, we had to have a lunch ticket or money to pay for lunch. If we forgot our lunch ticket or money, we could go to the office and they would loan us enough money to pay for lunch one day. The money had to be paid back the next day, or we got after school detention. That happened to me one time. I didn't let it happen again.
So who is going to staff the swipe/code/thumbprint system at the start of the line?
The food waste is really not the issue, they would more then likely toss out the overrun food anyway. Once food goes on to tray they have to toss it, by health code rules.
If you called, wrote, send notes home with student for 4 days, and then what is the alternative? Keep feeding them without getting paid for it?
My son schools does not do a head / meal counts, (and not sure the teachers would like to add Lunch account monitor to there list of things to do in the morning.)
It's really NOT that hard to put someone in the front of the line rather than the back. This is how my son's school did it. When he got in line, he would be told his account was empty! Then he would have to share someone's lunch or borrow some money. This was high school but I admit I was guilty once or twice. The emails would come to my work and got lost in the shuffle.
It's utterly ridiculous to go around taking lunches AWAY from kids that already have them and throwing that lunch in the trash.
The school has already said they didn't handle it properly and I agree.
There should be an administrative code to deal with this situation. And management responsibility to train staff the correct response in this situation. This is not a service level decision.
Was the staff trained? Obviously not.
Correct response, give kids food, give management responsibility for managing funds and payment, or deficits.
Notify supervision. Carry on serving lunch.
If management made this decision, heads need to roll.
Don’t punish the kids because their parent/s didn’t have the resources or ability to pay in advance for a lunch. School administration blew it with their actions. Think about it for a moment – this wasn’t the first time kids didn’t have money for lunches so what & who caused this action? It's nothing new, it just made the news this time!
Here's a solution, lest these Utah kids with ipads, iphones, and Vera Bradley backpacks go to bed hungryagain: Parents, make sure there are sufficient funds in your kids' lunch accounts. What a renegade idea.
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In our district we can pay into kids accounts on line AND see their balance.
again: Parents, make sure there are sufficient funds in your kids' lunch accounts. What a renegade idea.
