School lunch worker quits after being forced to refuse hot meal to poor student - Polidicks

[QUOTE] [IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/rudgIZ.jpg[/IMG] Stacy Koltiska said that she will never forget the look in the little boy’s eyes. As an elementary school lunchroom staffer, her job was to work the register for the children when they paid for their meals. But the boy had a negative balance on his account, and a new policy in the Canon-McMillan, Pa. school district this year prevents cafeteria workers from serving a hot meal to students who owe more than $25. Koltiska said she had to follow the policy and was ordered to refuse the boy his hot meal because he couldn’t pay for it. Rather than continue to enforce the policy at Wylandville Elementary School in Eighty Four, Pa., Koltiska tendered her resignation last week. Koltiska said in an interview that she had worked for the school district for two years. She said she was stunned by the new policy, which began this fall. [...] Students who were refused the hot meal instead got a sandwich made of two slices of wheat bread and a single, cold slice of “government cheese,” Koltiska said. The contents of the hot lunch, such as chicken nuggets or corn dog bites, [B]were thrown away[/B], Koltiska said, [U]even though parents would still be charged the full regular price of [B]$2.05[/B] for the meal[/U]. Koltiska said that she resigned out of a moral obligation.[/QUOTE] Source: [URL="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2016/09/20/school-lunch-worker-quits-after-being-forced-to-refuse-hot-meal-to-poor-student/"]The Washington Post[/URL]

School lunches in America are absolutely disgusting.

This isn't a surprise, I've had similar policies growing up through K-12 schools. Administration blows their money on fancy new gizmos, projectors, and refurbishing the recess equipment, but doesn't even subsidize for their own students' meals.

Whats with american schools and their retarded policies?

[QUOTE=Citrus705;51089959]Whats with american schools and their retarded policies?[/QUOTE] It's systematically broken from the core, after decades of disfigurement and gross policy changes. Public schools barely give a hoot about their students; on the other hand, good expensive private schools often have significantly higher quality of education. It's no particular surprise that the poor stay poor and the rich get richer, when you look at how our young students are treated.

[QUOTE=Citrus705;51089959]Whats with american schools and their retarded policies?[/QUOTE] Combination between lack of funding, poorly paid staff, lack of accountability (teacher's union), and fear of liability

It's absurd but what else can they do? The money never makes a profit, it's just to pay for the food, and if someone doesn't have money more than 12 times before paying their balance, eventually they have to cut them off and say "look, you've gotta pay or this system doesn't work anymore" Throwing the food away IS fucking ludicrous though. If it's getting wasted what's the difference

[QUOTE=aznz888;51089967]It's systematically broken from the core, after decades of disfigurement and gross policy changes. Public schools barely give a hoot about their students; on the other hand, good expensive private schools often have significantly higher quality of education. It's no particular surprise that the poor stay poor and the rich get richer, when you look at how our young students are treated.[/QUOTE] I want to send my (hypothetical) kids to a private school but I don't want them to become Christians or social retards

My school did the same but there was a $5 negative balance allowance rather than $25. It's not like they don't feed them if they can't pay, but the fact that they literally fucking threw the kids "hot" meal in the trash is ridiculous. What the fuck?

Absolute joke. The American school system needs a serious workover.

I'm pretty sure my school cared more about our sports programs than our actual academics. Although my computer graphics & design teacher got the full set of Autodesk CAD & Maya programs along with a 3D printer the year after I graduated so maybe they had a change of heart. School lunches are without doubt the biggest load of shit we deal with in this country.

Cuz bringin food from apparently destroys the economy of the school, just like it does in every single schools in Norway. Where you can bring home-made food and eat it and no one will comment on it. Fuck that policy.

[QUOTE=aznz888;51089957]This isn't a surprise, I've had similar policies growing up through K-12 schools. Administration blows their money on fancy new gizmos, projectors, and refurbishing the recess equipment, but doesn't even subsidize for their own students' meals.[/QUOTE] This, they rebuilt a gymnasium and bought the regional middle school new lockers (which weren't necessary) but the ceiling would still fucking leak from like 50 different spots every day. When it rained, we would have garbage cans placed through the halls like a minefield

[QUOTE=Kylel999;51089974]It's absurd but what else can they do? The money never makes a profit, it's just to pay for the food, and if someone doesn't have money more than 12 times before paying their balance, eventually they have to cut them off and say "look, you've gotta pay or this system doesn't work anymore" Throwing the food away IS fucking ludicrous though. If it's getting wasted what's the difference[/QUOTE] I understand that the budget isn't there, but no student should have to pay for their school lunch (and the quality of the food needs to drastically improve)

[quote]“God is love, and we should love one another and be kind,” Koltiska said. “There’s enough wealth in this world that no child should go hungry, especially in school. To me this is just wrong.” . . . Koltiska said that she knows what it’s like to feel hunger. She grew up north of Pittsburgh and survived on food stamps and free lunches at school. “I know the shame I felt, and it was of no fault of my own,” Koltiska said, noting that when she was young, she got a job reading out bingo numbers and saved up enough money for a pair of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans. “I thought if I could dress like the other kids then they wouldn’t know I was poor,” she said. Since resigning, Koltiska said that she has received messages of support from inmates in a nearby prison who want to donate their food to the schoolchildren and a nun who told Koltiska that she started a revolution “with a cheese sandwich.” Koltiska said she believes the school administration made a mistake with the new policy. “They’re suits at a board meeting,” she said. “They are not the ones facing a child and looking them in the eye and taking their food away.”[/quote] A very decent person. Need more like her in the world.

[QUOTE=JakeIsWin;51089980]My school did the same but there was a $5 negative balance allowance rather than $25. It's not like they don't feed them if they can't pay, but the fact that they literally fucking threw the kids "hot" meal in the trash is ridiculous. What the fuck?[/QUOTE] A meal that he had selected himself, before having it taken away. At least at my school the food came from behind a window so that you didn't have the chance to get it in your hands while starving before having it forcibly removed.

[QUOTE=Citrus705;51089959]Whats with american schools and their retarded policies?[/QUOTE] Half of our politicians pretend to care about schools but don't, while the other half is actively working to sabotage and defund public schools along with most other public services. Schools are also run like a business (when they aren't being run like a prison), and school administration is absolutely detached from the lives of almost all of the actual students. The people who make the most important decisions should be the people who are most closely involved with students, but right now it's the people who are least involved.

[QUOTE=LtKyle2;51089984]I'm pretty sure my school cared more about our sports programs than our actual academics. Although my computer graphics & design teacher got the full set of Autodesk CAD & Maya programs along with a 3D printer the year after I graduated so maybe they had a change of heart. School lunches are without doubt the biggest load of shit we deal with in this country.[/QUOTE] AutoCAD was awful though, hasn't been updated in like 7 years and it freezes every 10 minutes

[QUOTE]more than 300 families owed the district between $60,000 and $100,000 annually before the policy was put in place; now there are 70 families who owe the district a total of $20,000.[/QUOTE] They had to play hardball since a lot of people weren't paying for meals, idk how you overlook financial assistance tho

[QUOTE=EskillV2;51089986]Cuz bringin food from apparently destroys the economy of the school, just like it does in every single schools in Norway. Where you can bring home-made food and eat it and no one will comment on it. Fuck that policy.[/QUOTE] Does the school not allow food from home? I didn't see that in the article. My school lets us bring food from home but a lot of schools disallow common allergens like peanut butter

[QUOTE=proboardslol;51089989]I understand that the budget isn't there, but no student should have to pay for their school lunch (and the quality of the food needs to drastically improve)[/QUOTE] Amen, can't argue that

what always pissed me off was that the person at the checkout and by extension everyone nearby were aware that the lunch was free or reduced price

[QUOTE=Greenen72;51090001]They had to play hardball since a lot of people weren't paying for meals, idk how you overlook financial assistance tho[/QUOTE] Some families make too much money to receive financial assistance, but still have expenses which reduce their actual take home income (after bills and taxes) to well below the federal poverty guidelines. These families are refused aid because their income is counted before taxes and expenses, as if they have all of that money readily available. Besides that, you don't play hard-ball with elementary school children, as it is an excellent way to irreversibly disenfranchise them for their entire lives. And besides [I][B]that[/B][/I], don't you think it is a little outrageous that families are expected to pay $285 a school year just to have their children fed while in a place that they are by law required to be? [editline]22nd September 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=proboardslol;51090007]Does the school not allow food from home? I didn't see that in the article. My school lets us bring food from home but a lot of schools disallow common allergens like peanut butter[/QUOTE] My school banned it under the guise of protecting us from the unhealthy food at home in order to coerce us into buying from the cafeteria, snack carts, or lunch bar. There was also a literal candy store on campus, open every morning and during lunch in which other students would blow 5-10 dollars on over a thousand calories worth of snacks.

[QUOTE=proboardslol;51089952]School lunches in America are absolutely disgusting.[/QUOTE] School lunches used to be pretty good here. My school had specific lines for certain meals. Pizza, burgers, hot dogs etc. The district based their funding on the numbers of lunch applicants. They didn't give a shit if you lied about your income as long as you turned in the application.

[QUOTE=ghost901;51090074]School lunches used to be pretty good here. My school had specific lines for certain meals. Pizza, burgers, hot dogs etc. The district based their funding on the numbers of lunch applicants. They didn't give a shit if you lied about your income as long as you turned in the application.[/QUOTE] That doesn't sound good at all, but at least it's some kind of food.

If i ever have a kid i'll NEVER let him/her eat school food. I will always give them a lunch from home, that's how I was raised.

[QUOTE=jiggu;51090087]That doesn't sound good at all, but at least it's some kind of food.[/QUOTE] It was actually good compared to the shit that is served today. I'd imagine the food has gotten worse.

[QUOTE=Greenen72;51090001]They had to play hardball since a lot of people weren't paying for meals, idk how you overlook financial assistance tho[/QUOTE] This is just a symptom of the issue. What they're doing here is ignoring the problem and saying they don't want to deal with it. The families that owed money aren't going to be magically better off because of this policy, they just straight-up won't get food anymore.

[QUOTE=aznz888;51089957]This isn't a surprise, I've had similar policies growing up through K-12 schools. Administration blows their money on fancy new gizmos, projectors, and refurbishing the recess equipment, but doesn't even subsidize for their own students' meals.[/QUOTE] You can thank the incredibly earmarked government budgets for that. Many districts literally can't spend the money where they actually need it.

My School had a like, i think $10 dollar negative balance limit, but at the same time also let parents and kids have the ability to sign up for free lunches if they couldnt afford to pay for them. Worked pretty well, actually.