Heartless Florida high school cafeteria workers deny child lunch on first day over 15 cents

[Judi Lynn]

Source: The Grio

Heartless Florida high school cafeteria workers deny child lunch on first day over 15 cents
Kimberly Aikin said her 15-year-old daughter spent the entire first day without anything to eat at University High School in Orange City, Fla.

By Melanie Eversley - August 19, 2018

A Florida high school sophomore who was 15 cents short of having enough money for a cafeteria lunch was turned away and the meal thrown in the trash, the girl’s mother is telling CBS News.

As a result, the girl spent the entire first day at school without anything to eat, the girl’s mother, Kimberly Aiken, told CBS affiliate WKMG-TV. The incident happened at University High School in Orange City, Fla.

“She puts her food on the tray, gets to the front, gives her number to the cashier, and she says, ‘Well, you owe 15 cents,’ “ Aiken recalled. “My daughter said she didn’t have any money, so the cashier took her food.”

Actually, the cashier threw the meal in the trash, the mom told the station. The mother declined to name her daughter.

Read more: https://thegrio.com/2018/08/19/kimberly-aikin-daughter-denied-school-lunch-15-cents-short/

[ck4829]

1. And then we ask why young people are hating capitalism more and more

[Turbineguy]

2. The trash can

had more money?

[chillfactor]

4. Hell....

I would have given the girl 15 cents out of my own pocket. How anyone see a student going hungry all day is beyond my comprehension. There are no words bad enough to describe that cafeteria worker.

[tblue37]

29. I have read of cafeteria workers being fired for providing the missing money, paying for

kid's entire lunches, or not throwing away the food when the kid's account is short.

[workinclasszero]

60. IKR?

What the hell is wrong with people in this country?

The disease of libertarian republicanism has spread far and wide into our society and poisoned it greatly.

[mr_lebowski]

3. Almost as bad as what the cashier did is that no other kid close by in line could spring for 15

friggin' cents? REALLY?

She's 15 years old, she's not in line with a buncha Kindergartners. Probably everyone near her had at least a quarter in their damn pocket.

Hell just the other day at Safeway I saw someone offer someone else the $5.00 that they were short at the register, and this is deep-red AZ.

[mwooldri]

10. If it is like my kids schools...

... the kids are quite unlikely to have cash. We load our kids lunch money on an online account. Those without Internet load at school, $5, $10, $20 a time.

However our school district isn't that heartless. They do allow some overdraft before "alternate lunch" is served.

[meadowlander]

21. My bus card lets me go at least $3 in the hole before I'm denied service.

The cafeteria should operate on the same system - give the kid the damn lunch if they have under $5 owing on the account and then go after the parents for the balance.

There is no excuse for letting a kid go hungry or confronting them publicly with not having enough money to pay and shaming them in front of their peers.

[randr]

5. Other students also are empty of

Compassion

[YOHABLO]

6. How much is a school lunch these days? Couldn't she have let it go this time? 15 CENTS???

THREW THE LUNCH OUT? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE !!!!!!!

[left-of-center2012]

7. I read this morning ...

The school district I graduated from (New Kensington-Arnold, PA)
now provides a free breakfast and lunch to each student.
They have 2,000 students.

[Varaddem]

19. That's class!

Give them a chance! A good friend gave the best med orals They had heard in 20 years. He was undecided after high school weather to be a first grade teacher or a research medical doctor he said both could change the world

[blue-wave]

8. 15 cents?

Heck, I would have paid for her whole lunch if need be. No one around this girl, adults or other students could offer the 15 cents? We need emergency training nationwide on empathy and compassion.

[Meadowoak]

54. In my school district, the policy is the school district will pay the first time, and they send home

An application for free/reduced lunch.

[left-of-center2012]

9. One winter day years ago ...

One winter day years ago I was on a bus in Portland, Maine when an Asian woman and small child got on.

She put money in the fare box and the driver told her she was short 15¢.
He was going to make her get off the bus.

I got up and put a quarter in the fare box for her, and I told the driver “Now you owe me 10¢”.

He gave me the nastiest look imaginable.

I think he was looking forward to putting her off the bus.

[Chickensoup]

11. Welcome to the Trump era of lack

of compassion. When they separate
children from their parents, denying
lunch to a child over 15 cents
is nothing to loose sleep over for the republicans who run Florida.

[keithbvadu2]

15. $700 a day to keep children and babies in Trump's cages

[Jake Stern]

22. This was happening just as much under Obama

[Stargazer99]

28. What makes you think it would not happen under republicans?

[Jake Stern]

30. Huh?

Never said it wouldn't. Simply noted that this has happened under Dem presidents as well.

[Bengus81]

46. And the title of this post claims that this happens ONLY under Republican Presidents?!?!

That's not the point of the post,it's just the ridiculous heartlessness of what goes on in this Country.

[Jake Stern]

62. Was responding to someone who felt this was just a Trump thing

[INdemo]

47. What?

[Snarkoleptic]

12. America is infested with some truly sick authoritarian creeps.

What will it take to shake us of this fever and show care/compassion to our fellow man?
SMH

[KY_EnviroGuy]

34. People like that have no right to claim....

any attachment whatsoever to any religion other than the Church of Selfishness, Hate and Greed.

That's the one tRump, Pence, Mnuchin, et al say their prayers to every morning.....

[Varaddem]

13. Common POS

Kids don’t learn when they’re hungry. Your governor is a criminal! Humiliation? You are right Florida! Why worry about free college if you weren’t willing to pay for K-12. If you don’t believe in your own children why should I? Everyone of you should wake up warring about Scott’s tax break.

[Freethinker65]

14. I paid the balance on a few Aldi customers' purchases when they were short

I also often leave my change in those "need a penny, take a penny" type containers at registers. Perhaps the school cafeteria could provide some thing like that. Making a scene and tossing the food over 15 cents, especially on the first day/week back, seems absurd.

A few times the cashier themselves would suggest using the change provided rather than breaking a larger bill.

[ck4829]

23. +1 I do the same thing

[ProudLib72]

16. JFC, remove a tablespoon of mashed potatoes and you've reclaimed that precious 15 cents

This is for the lunch lady and the fellow students:

[elmac]

17. a heartless state in a heartless country

fascism is ugly, evil and as long as we suffer under capitalism, it is here to stay.

[Honeycombe8]

18. I thought they paid in advance?

If so, then the parents had been sent notices, right? They don't pay by the day, do they? It's so different from when I went to school.

Her friends didn't give her parts of their lunch? That's what most kids would do...chip in a bit of this and a bit of that.

She needs to complain to the school board...and make sure her daughter always has some change on her. Everybody needs a bit of change for an emergency.

[ansible]

20. Meanwhile another school cafeteria was staffed by lunch ladies who stole nearly half a million $$$

A pair of sisters who worked as lunch ladies in Connecticut schools were arrested over the weekend after officials say they embezzled nearly half a million dollars. The funds were taken over a five-year span, though detectives say the actual number could be much higher, NBC Connecticut reports. Authorities arrested 61-year-old Joanne Pascarelli, of Wilton, and 67-year-old Marie Wilson, of Stratford, on charges of first-degree larceny by defrauding a community.

Detectives said fellow cafeteria workers from the schools told them they didn't count the money in their own registers before or after their shifts, alleging that the sisters were instead collecting the drawers and counting the cash in their own offices. Without revealing how much she was taking, employees said Pascarelli would visit the cafeteria and take large bills out of their registers between lunch periods, the woman's arrest warrant states.

When one employee questioned Pascarelli about how she was handling the money, she was reportedly forced to wash dishes for months as retaliation, according to arrest warrants. Another worker, who told authorities she was astonished that the school didn't discover the thefts sooner, said she also raised concerns about the handling of cash and was subsequently transferred from the high school to the middle school by Wilson.

Additionally, cashiers told police the duo had them signing blank bank deposit slips. Wilson and Pascarelli stand accused of stealing a total of $478,588 from 2012 to 2017, though detectives say that figure could be much higher as the thefts may have been going on for up to 15 years.

http://www.crimeonline.com/2018/08/14/lunch-lady-sisters-steal-nearly-500k-from-school-cafeterias-figure-could-be-much-higher-police/

[ProfessorGAC]

58. Was Just About To Bring That Up

Those ex-employees should pay for a lunch for 100,000 kids tomorrow.

[Igel]

64. And in another district

they stopped humiliating students who couldn't pay, and saw their uncollected accounts triple the following year.

After Harvey, local school districts sprang for free breakfasts and lunches for their students. Mine did. And in the second half of the year docked various accounts for the money. It wasn't like they got free money for this. They had a budget. They overspent on food. Somebody else had to reimburse that account so that there was enough money to continue to buy food and pay the cafeteria workers. Budgets are zero-sum games.

In the spring my dept.--I teach in one of the districts that sprang for those additional meals--went to buy supplies using figures we were given in October and were told that the science supply budget was significantly less than expected.


In your post, somebody did something wrong. That doesn't have much to do with what other districts experience. My district's repeatedly tightened fiscal accounting practices to the point that it's almost impossible to abide by them.

[msongs]

24. NONE of her so-called friends would give her 15 cents? nt

[Croney]

25. I see from the picture of the child's mother that this is a nonwhite family.

Maybe the workers were too, I don't know. With all the trouble people are getting into for existing while black, it was just my first thought to go see if there was a picture. Anyone who would deny any child a meal should be fired.

[Rhiannon12866]

26. There are organizations dedicated to paying for kids' school lunches

So no child has to go without eating - or feel embarrassment. But it's beyond me that not one adult on the scene couldn't come up with 15-cents to help out this one child.


http://www.schoollunchfairy.org/

[JI7]

27. Schools need to Provide All Students with Meals and do away with lunch tickets/cash

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

48. In schools where a large portion of the students

qualify for free or reduced meal prices they can get free meals for all students. I think the meals should be included in the cost of education and paid for with taxes because feeding children isn't optional.

[olddad56]

31. I would choose death over living in Florida

[hunter]

32. School lunches are free in my school district. Breakfasts too.

And the program extends through the summer and winter breaks, anyone seventeen and under eats free.

Okay, my taxes pay for that, but I'm okay with that.

[dchill]

33. "...turned away and the meal thrown in the trash,"

I knew Republican values would turn up somewhere!

[CottonBear]

35. My local school district provides FREE breakfast & lunch to ALL students.

There are summer lunch programs too.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

36. Judi Lynn, here's what I'm going to do today..

I'm going to mail 15-cents for the girl who couldn't buy lunch to:

University High School
2450 Cougar Way, Orlando, FL 32817-3500

Phone [phone] | Fax [phone]

I may decide to be generous and mail them a buck to put in a cup for other kids running short, but I'm prone to feel the 15-cents in change makes a more effective statement. If a few hundred people did this, they might get off their self-righteous asses and fix this problem. This school is very near the University of Central Florida, so someone near there should be smart enough to figure it out.

.....................

[whistler162]

38. I think you have the wrong school...

1000 West Rhode Island Avenue
Orange City, FL 32763-8836
Phone [phone]
Fax: [phone]

http://www.uhstitans.com/cafeteria - I wonder what the full story is!

"No Charge Policy School Way Cafe
Policy for Students without money for meals at University High School

I. Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to ensure compliance with federal reporting requirements for the USDA Child Nutrition Program, and to provide oversight and accountability for the collection of outstanding student meal balances.

The intent of this policy is to establish uniform meal account procedures throughout University High School. The provisions of this policy pertain to full pay and reduced-priced school lunch meals only. NOTE: This policy is school administration-based and may vary between schools.

II. Policy
Students are not permitted to charge meals or a la carte items. .

Students/Parents/Guardians may pay for meals in advance via cash or with a check payable to ­­­–University High School/SWC or you can pay www.myschoolbucks.com,. Please note this service does have a minimal fee. Funds should be maintained in accounts to minimize the possibility that a child may be without meal money on any given day. Any remaining funds for a student at the end of the school year will be carried over to the next school year.

School Way Café uses computerized point of sale/cash register systems that maintain records of all monies deposited and spent for each student and said records are available by setting up an account at www.myschoolbucks.com .

If a student is without meal money on a consistent basis, the administration will investigate the situation more closely and take further action as needed. If financial hardship exists, parents and families are encouraged to apply for free or reduced-price meal benefits for their child by visiting: http://myvolusiaschools.org/schoolwaycafe/Pages/Free-and-Reduced-Meal-Applications.aspx to apply for meal benefits.(Bolding is mine)

Currently, breakfast is complimentary to all students enrolled in Volusia County Schools; however, this service may be discontinued at any time."

[KY_EnviroGuy]

41. Wow, that is strange and thank you.

Odd that two high schools only about 20 miles apart would use the same name! I just choose the first one Goggle found. I see Orange City is just north of Orlando.

Glad you caught it 'cause I was already drafting my letter. I will review the info you sent first, though.

It does indicate how everything in our lives is monetized, with someone making a profit and little leeway for bending the rules. Reminds me of the for-profit phone call systems for jails and prisons.

.....

[alphafemale]

37. A lunch should be included at no out of cost to students

Humiliation has a cost.

[Grokenstein]

39. Of course they threw it in the trash...

...they're just fulfilling Rush Limbaugh and other rightwankers' dream of teaching "those people's" children to dumpster-dive.

(seriously, though, this crap will not stop until we make it stop)

[blueinredohio]

40. This story is a little hard to believe

I could understand being short if school had been going on for a bit. But on the first day? Example if lunch is one dollar who puts 85 cents in their students account?

[Achilleaze]

42. "republican family values" in action

[ck4829]

51. Not a fetus or a billionaire, not important

[turbinetree]

43. In most civilized societies education and the meal is provided for the student as part of

the tax plan, so children going to school don't have to worry about this kind of thing, but in this country, just think, the school gets reimbursed for the cost of the food, in some way shape or form.

And as for the anti-student food handler..................it is not within her job description to deny a person a lunch or a breakfast for a school, her job description is to prepare and serve, god knows what she does to the food in the preparation phase....................god knows, so if she gets fired maybe she can see what its like wondering when her next meal comes from...............

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/mar/30/schoolmeals.schools1

Old study

-snip-

United States
A typical menu from a California school consists of a hamburger with potato wedges or Rotisserie-style roast chicken, shredded lettuce and pickles, chilled fruit and purple dinosaur cookies. The total cost would be $2 (£1.06).

The standards for nutrition are based on the federal government's dietary guidelines for Americans, which recommend that no more than 30% of an individual's calories come from fat and less than 10% from saturated fat.

School lunches must also provide at least one-third of the recommended dietary allowances of protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium, and calories.

The federal government lays down the dietary guidelines, but decisions about what specific foods to serve and how they are prepared are made by local school food authorities.

The government runs and funds a national school lunch programme, administered by the US department of agriculture, which operates in over 97,700 schools. The programme provides inexpensive or free lunches to 27 million children and cost $7.1bn in 2003.

Children from families with incomes at or below 130% of the poverty level are eligible for free meals. Those with incomes between 130% and 185% of the poverty level are eligible for reduced-price meals, for which students can be charged no more than 40 cents. (For the period July 1 2004 to June 30 2005, 130% of the poverty level is $24,505 for a family of four; 185% is $34,873.)

Most of the support that the department of agriculture provides to schools in the national school lunch programme comes in the form of a cash reimbursement for each meal served. The current basic cash reimbursement rates are: $2.24 for free lunches; $1.84 for reduced price lunches; and 21 cents for free paid lunches.

[FSogol]

44. I've written about this here on DU in the past. In this case, the PTA needs to step up.

At my son's elementary schools (my sons are in college now, but the program still exists), the PTA set up a fund to cover lunches for kids who forgot their money or couldn't pay. It was a nice supplement to a lot of families. If some kid consistently couldn't pay, they'd send someone to their house to help them sign up for free/reduced price lunches. Whenever I was in the office for something, I'd dump whatever I had in my wallet into the fund.

PTAs in other areas need to step up.

[Stainless]

45. Denying food to school kids is the most vile and disgusting behavior I can imagine!

The entire school staff should be shamed and punished for such egregious behavior. What is wrong with these sick fucks?

[obamanut2012]

50. Nothing is wrong with them -- they fear for their jobs

Punch up, not down, and put the blame where it should be.

[obamanut2012]

49. It isn't the workers' fault

It isn't their policies, it's the school board's. Most of these workers are minimum wage w/o any benefits, and they fear for their jobs and not being able to feed THEIR kids, or buy their meds, or pay their rent. These are not unionized or well paid staff.

People in this thread need to quit punching down.

[TEB]

52. Dammit

Heartless witch

[janterry]

53. Do we know the backstory? If not, how can we comment

This might be a lovely young woman who was insulted, called out, and humiliated.
It might be an overworked worker who is adhering to rules that were made by their superior. They had no choice.

It might be a girl who, last year, failed to pay for lunches and didn't care (well, her mom didn't).
It might be that the mother has a history at the school and her behavior might have instigated some of this.

Clearly, policies should shift to protect the teen (no matter her families behavior - if there was, even, some behavior).

But this is one of those stories where - when you don't know the whole story -it's hard to understand the micro stuff. What we do know is that the policy can shift. So,micro stuff - who knows, macro stuff - yes, we can/should change that.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

55. A trillion just bc for rich folks.

our kids can gth I guess.

[Cold War Spook]

56. When did children having to pay for lunch start?

I graduated high school in 61 and never paid for lunch. We could bring a lunch if we wanted to, the weekly menu was in the Saturday newspaper. My favorite was tuna fish in a hotdog role.

[EllieBC]

57. I graduated in 199i in NYS. We had to pay for lunches. Now I live in Canada and there is NO federa

federal lunch program. Many if not most elementary schools in my province do not have a cafeteria let alone a kitchen. No school lunches.

[OriginalGeek]

59. I graduated in 1981

but I went all four years of high school to a private christian school. They only offered chips and microwave burgers and burritos for sale so we were prone to bring lunch because that food was pretty bad plus there were only a couple microwaves so you spent most of lunch in line if you actually did want to eat that.

But I'm trying to remember back to Jr High and elementary and I just don't remember if I paid anything or not. I seem to recall we could get an extra milk for a nickle - which I often did as those tiny half-pints were gone in a gulp. I do remember my favorite was Frito-Pie day - A scoop of chili so thick it retained its' shape (like an ice cream scoop) on a bed of Fritos and lettuce and topped with cheese. I'm still trying to replicate that flavor to this day lol.

[ROB-ROX]

61. NO MONEY???

I understand schools have vending machines to fuel students when they require something. In the 60's my high school had a food stand to provide food which used the profits for school activities. So what parent does not provide their child with cash for a special expense?? This story seems a little UNREAL. The part where the cashier dumps the lunch was probably true. The part about not have any cash was AMAZING.......

[MineralMan]

63. Yes. No money. Many school children have no money.

Many parents of school children have no money. A parent with no money may not be able to provide a child with money. This is the real world, not some fantasy world from the 60s. I went to school in the 60s, too. Lots of kids didn't have money for cafeteria lunches. Some brought lunch from home. Others simply didn't eat lunch. I remember that very, very well.

My mother worked as a cashier in the cafeteria. I can't tell you how many kids she bought lunch for. Any kid who came through the line but didn't have enough money for lunch, she paid for. That was her way, and some of the no-money kids knew it and came through the line, knowing that their lunch would get paid for.

These days, lunches are paid for through accounts that parents pay into. When those accounts are empty, sometimes they don't get money added, for many reasons.

No kid should have to go without lunch, and no lunch should ever be thrown in the trash because a kid's lunch account is empty.

You seem to be living in a past that never existed.