How does your school handle the lunch policy?

[Belle2667]

Our school district just started this no money, no food policy. In the elementary schools, the kids still get a sandwich. For middle school & high school they go without.

The issue I have is that some of the kids are picking their lunches out and don't know until they get to the check out line that there is no money in the account (like when I forgot to add more). Anyway, I know my child can make it through a day without eating and I don't have an issue with that (I make sure he has a few dollars on him just in case).

My issue is that when the kids get up in line and are told they don't have money for their lunch, the lunch people THROW THE FOOD AWAY!

What sense does that make???? You have a hungry kid who might not pay you back (hence the reason for the new policy) and you are just going to throw his lunch away?? Makes me sick.

Thanks for renewing my anger over this....time to follow up with the school.

 

[DizBelle]

Okay my kids are almost ALWAYS in the negative.. why? well first of all because they carry their lunch almost everyday. There are days while in school they decide they want to eat what the school is having. I do not know they are eating until I get a bill sent home. We can not check their accounts online. If I put 15$ in there and they aren't telling me they are eating in school how the heck am I supposed to know they need more money?!? It annoys the crap out of me! But what can I do? I pay once I find out they need more. We pay 1.50 for full price lunches. I think reduced are .60$ I'm not sure we dont qualify for it.

How are you supposed to know? It's called communication with your child.

 

[DizBelle]

Our schools will give the kid the lunch and tell them to please bring a check tomorrow. I usually send a check in with them to put on their account. When it gets low the lunch lady will tell them its low, but if I forget to send money in she gives them the lunch and reminds them to bring a check in. We can check the account online and I usually stay on top of it.

About the kid who got his lunch thrown away in front of him...well IMO it was sleazy to do that, whether that kid was poor or just a brat he was a hungry kid and that was a waste of food. No excuse for it. Sorry.

They already gave him lunch multiple times while not having enough in his account. How many times are they supposed to do that before refusing him lunch?

 

[Disneyadore]

The boy is 15 years. In a few months he will be driven a car but he is not capable of keeping track of his lunch money? So if he runs out of gas he is just going to refill it and drive the happy merry irresponsible free loaders road?

 

[HelenePA]

How are you supposed to know? It's called communication with your child.

I do ask.. they dont always tell me the truth because they think they are going to get in trouble for me packing a lunch and them eating in school. I've never once yelled.. You sound like a lovely person.. Have a nice day Thankfully ours schools are not a cold as some people

 

[golfgal]

Our schools will give the kid the lunch and tell them to please bring a check tomorrow. I usually send a check in with them to put on their account. When it gets low the lunch lady will tell them its low, but if I forget to send money in she gives them the lunch and reminds them to bring a check in. We can check the account online and I usually stay on top of it.

About the kid who got his lunch thrown away in front of him...well IMO it was sleazy to do that, whether that kid was poor or just a brat he was a hungry kid and that was a waste of food. No excuse for it. Sorry.

This is the other thing, our school gives the kids a $5 warning-when their balance gets to $5 they let them know so that is 2 lunches BEFORE they run out of money even.

We can check online but I don't. I expect the kids to let me know as part of teaching the to be responsible.

 

[ICF]

We send in $$ every so often for the kids to draw from when they buy lunches.

As their account gets low (i.e. less then $5 or so) we get an email note telling us that their balance is low and to send more money. They can go negative (and have once or twice), but I am not sure what happens if we just dont ever send in any more.

 

[Sleepy]

Okay my kids are almost ALWAYS in the negative.. why? well first of all because they carry their lunch almost everyday. There are days while in school they decide they want to eat what the school is having. I do not know they are eating until I get a bill sent home. We can not check their accounts online. If I put 15$ in there and they aren't telling me they are eating in school how the heck am I supposed to know they need more money?!? It annoys the crap out of me! But what can I do? I pay once I find out they need more. We pay 1.50 for full price lunches. I think reduced are .60$ I'm not sure we dont qualify for it.

Maybe you should ask your kids what they ate for lunch. I am not you, but I would be upset if my kid took food to school that had to be thrown away because they made a last minute decision to eat in the cafeteria. I would be upset if they did this and then did not tell me that they used money from the account, placing into a negative situation. I would guess most school lunch menus are posted online, so you could print it out and ask your kids in the morning if they are eating in the cafeteria. When they have used the alloted money, you add more. Really isn't difficult.

 

[golfgal]

Maybe you should ask your kids what they ate for lunch. I am not you, but I would be upset if my kid took food to school that had to be thrown away because they made a last minute decision to eat in the cafeteria. I would be upset if they did this and then did not tell me that they used money from the account, placing into a negative situation. I would guess most school lunch menus are posted online, so you could print it out and ask your kids in the morning if they are eating in the cafeteria. When they have used the alloted money, you add more. Really isn't difficult.

I would be upset too. It is too much like teaching kids to use credit cards instead of paying cash for things to me.

 

[scrapquitler]

At the elementary (and middle schools) in my town, they have a prepaid account system for lunches. Parents go on line or send in a check to add money to the child's account, the child punches in his/her pin number when purchasing lunch (this is also nice because if the child gets free/reduced lunch, no one knows). I think you can sign up to get an email reminder if the account is running out of money. If the child runs out of money, the cafeteria lady gives the child lunch, and the money comes out of the principals account. Then a note gets sent home with the child requesting reimbursement. I imagine there is some amount of loss this way, but most likely it is minimal. And no child ever goes without lunch, and attention is not called to it to make the child feel bad.

 

[It'sWDW4me]

I just can't believe the harshness of some of these comments!

Yes, the kid is a teen. He is not old enough to hold a full-time job to fully financially support himself. I seem to remember hearing something along the lines of it's a parent's responsibility to feed, clothe, and house a child under the age of 18 (YMMV - I know there are emancipated kids under 18. I do not want to start a quibble over the age).

Was he told his account was negative? Was he told the day before this incident that he couldn't get lunch unless money was deposited into his account or did the school authorities decide to make a point/scene on an unsuspecting kid? Did he tell his parent(s) one, two, three times that he was low on lunch money? Is his account constantly hovering near the $0 balance? We know the answers to none of these questions. Where does the irresponsibility lie - with the student, the parents, or the school employee?

But, honestly, what the heck was the fuss over being $7 in the hole? Now if his account was -$70, I could see the school making a broo-ha. Flame away if you will but I was a horrible parent and there was a point that I kept forgetting to send a check in with my son. His account fell to around -$7 once (I have the email notices and usually don't let it fall below $5). The school did let him get lunch for those 2 or 3 days that his account fell below $0 but he was not allowed to buy extras (yogurt, bottled water, slushies, etc). Now, to avoid embarrassment on both our parts, I have a system where I send a check in with him every time I get paid - on the 15th and last day of the month. He hasn't run down to $0 yet since I started doing that. I consider that to have been my fault/error/irresponsibility - call it what you will - and it was resolved relatively quickly and quietly with no broo-ha-ha at the school.

Now, for another view, I have a friend who works in our MS cafeteria. There is a student whose parents are divorced/divorcing. Dad is court-ordered to pay for school lunches. He wouldn't send $ in. Mom is ticked and refuses to send $ in because dad is supposed to provide for that. What the heck is the kid to do - go without lunch because dad is a deadbeat and mom is pissed?!? This kid's account was, at the time I heard the story, closing in on $200 in the hole.

As for the school, if I remember correctly, when our district started the electronic lunch funds program (DS was in ES), I had to sign something verifying that I would keep funds in the account, not let the account go neg, keep my eye on the balance - basically verify that I would be financially responsible for the account. Did this school have the same thing for the parents to sign? If so, then why would they go after the kid rather than the person who claimed financial responsibility? Was notification sent home to the parents stating that no lunches would be served AT ALL if the account went negative? Was this kid's parent contacted, specifically?

IMO, the kid should not have been caught in the middle of a financial issue between his parents and the school disctrict.

 

[golfgal]

I just can't believe the harshness of some of these comments!

Yes, the kid is a teen. He is not old enough to hold a full-time job to fully financially support himself. I seem to remember hearing something along the lines of it's a parent's responsibility to feed, clothe, and house a child under the age of 18 (YMMV - I know there are emancipated kids under 18. I do not want to start a quibble over the age).

Was he told his account was negative? Was he told the day before this incident that he couldn't get lunch unless money was deposited into his account or did the school authorities decide to make a point/scene on an unsuspecting kid? Did he tell his parent(s) one, two, three times that he was low on lunch money? Is his account constantly hovering near the $0 balance? We know the answers to none of these questions. Where does the irresponsibility lie - with the student, the parents, or the school employee?

But, honestly, what the heck was the fuss over being $7 in the hole? Now if his account was -$70, I could see the school making a broo-ha. Flame away if you will but I was a horrible parent and kept forgetting to send a check in with my son. His account fell to around -$7 once. The school did let him get lunch for those 2 or 3 days that his account fell below $0 but he was not allowed to buy extras (yogurt, bottled water, slushies, etc). Now, to avoid embarrassment on both our parts, I have a system where I send a check in with him every time I get paid - on the 15th and last day of the month. He hasn't run down to $0 yet since I started doing that. I consider that to have been my fault/error/irresponsibility - call it what you will - and it was resolved relatively quickly and quietly with no broo-ha-ha at the school.

Now, for another view, I have a friend who works in our MS cafeteria. There is a student whose parents are divorced/divorcing. Dad is court-ordered to pay for school lunches. He wouldn't send $ in. Mom is ticked and refuses to send $ in because dad is supposed to provide for that. What the heck is the kid to do - go without lunch because dad is a deadbeat and mom is pissed?!? This kid's account was, at the time I heard the story, closing in on $200 in the hole.

As for the school, if I remember correctly, when our district started the electronic lunch funds program (DS was in ES), I had to sign something verifying that I would keep funds in the account, not let the account go neg, keep my eye on the balance - basically verify that I would be financially responsible for the account. Did this school have the same thing for the parents to sign? If so, then why would they go after the kid rather than the person who claimed financial responsibility? Was notification sent home to the parents stating that no lunches would be served AT ALL if the account went negative? Was this kid's parent contacted, specifically?

IMO, the kid should not have been caught in the middle of a financial issue between his parents and the school disctrict.

But the school shouldn't be caught up in the families financial situation either. If they don't have money, they need to call the school and make arrangements or the kid needs to bring food from home. The school isn't a charity and if the parents aren't feeding the kid, social services should be called to deal with it, not the school.

 

[HelenePA]

Maybe you should ask your kids what they ate for lunch. I am not you, but I would be upset if my kid took food to school that had to be thrown away because they made a last minute decision to eat in the cafeteria. I would be upset if they did this and then did not tell me that they used money from the account, placing into a negative situation. I would guess most school lunch menus are posted online, so you could print it out and ask your kids in the morning if they are eating in the cafeteria. When they have used the alloted money, you add more. Really isn't difficult.

Our school doesn't even have a website We do get one sent home and its on my calendar but as you know they are "subject" to change.. I pick and choose my battles.. this is not one I choose to battle with.. if they want to eat in school instead fine.. I do ask.. sometimes they dont tell. My school has it printed on the bottom of their bill to pay the balance before school is over... I pay the next day its all good.. dont worry I dont skip out on paying for my kids lunches

 

[luvmy3]

What did some of you think about the fact that the school board member's son owed money on his account, but the dad didn't know about it until this all came out?

I happen to like this particular school board member and his family, but that's just WRONG. The kid has the right last name and he gets a pass?

The kid who was suspended did get a pass, in fact even his mother admitted he had gotten a pass for a few days, he was $-7. That being said, there is no excuse for any parent to not know what the balance of their child's account is if they have access to that info via a website, like the Director did.

 

[It'sWDW4me]

But the school shouldn't be caught up in the families financial situation either. If they don't have money, they need to call the school and make arrangements or the kid needs to bring food from home. The school isn't a charity and if the parents aren't feeding the kid, social services should be called to deal with it, not the school.

I do agree with you. But did the school contact the parent(s) in this situation before they caused a scene in the lunchroom? Did the school contact social services to look into the family? Yes, you can bet that would cause sufficient embarrassment to the parent without financial issues for it to be the last time their kid's account went negative OR it would have been a godsend to the parent with financial issues to hear of available help. Either way, this should have been handled between the contracted parties - the school and the parent, NOT the kid.

 

[golfgal]

I do agree with you. But did the school contact the parent(s) in this situation before they caused a scene in the lunchroom? Did the school contact social services to look into the family? Yes, you can bet that would cause sufficient embarrassment to the parent without financial issues for it to be the last time their kid's account went negative OR it would have been a godsend to the parent with financial issues to hear of available help. Either way, this should have been handled between the contracted parties - the school and the parent, NOT the kid.

I am sorry but I TOTALLY disagree. I have 3 high school aged kids and if they don't tell me their lunch balance is low, they don't get lunch-period. I expect THEM to be responsible enough to remember to tell me they need lunch money. If we didn't have the money to send in, the kids would have to bring in a bag lunch. Yes, the parents should pay the bill but the kid WAS told he was out of lunch money.

 

[It'sWDW4me]

I am sorry but I TOTALLY disagree. I have 3 high school aged kids and if they don't tell me their lunch balance is low, they don't get lunch-period. I expect THEM to be responsible enough to remember to tell me they need lunch money. If we didn't have the money to send in, the kids would have to bring in a bag lunch. Yes, the parents should pay the bill but the kid WAS told he was out of lunch money.

Ahhh, but was he told? There seems to be a question on that per the article (underlining is mine):

Director Sam McCollum said his son's account was also in arrears, but he only learned of it when he checked online, through Nutrition Group's Web site, mylunchmoney.com. His son was never notified.

Dr. Jerome Bartley, district superintendent, said the policy is to not have charges whatsoever at the middle and senior high school. Workers are supposed to remind a student that his or her account is low whenever the balance drops below $5, and they are to refuse service when it dwindles to zero.

Bartley said he will check with the cafeteria workers to make sure they are following the policy.

Not being there ourselves, we don't know what actually occurred on or before the incident.

 

[Mellie2162]

I am sorry but I TOTALLY disagree. I have 3 high school aged kids and if they don't tell me their lunch balance is low, they don't get lunch-period. I expect THEM to be responsible enough to remember to tell me they need lunch money. If we didn't have the money to send in, the kids would have to bring in a bag lunch. Yes, the parents should pay the bill but the kid WAS told he was out of lunch money.

Well I dont know about your teenagers but I know my one teen is so busy and involved with so many things in school that lunch is the last thing we talk about at the end of her day. Right now she is in the school play and is in rehearsals until 9 PM. Im lucky to even hear if she ate lunch that day. Im the parent and she is my responsibility until she leaves the nest, and so I will go online and keep tabs of her lunch acct and give her a check when needed. Does that make my snowflake irresponsible?

 

[luvmy3]

I do agree with you. But did the school contact the parent(s) in this situation before they caused a scene in the lunchroom? Did the school contact social services to look into the family? Yes, you can bet that would cause sufficient embarrassment to the parent without financial issues for it to be the last time their kid's account went negative OR it would have been a godsend to the parent with financial issues to hear of available help. Either way, this should have been handled between the contracted parties - the school and the parent, NOT the kid.

The kid is 15. He can legally hold a job and will be able to drive a car soon. I find it odd to accept that this level of responsibilty be placed on someone that age, yet he can't be expected to keep track of his lunch acct and inform his parents himself when it runs low

 

[Mellie2162]

Our school doesn't even have a website We do get one sent home and its on my calendar but as you know they are "subject" to change.. I pick and choose my battles.. this is not one I choose to battle with.. if they want to eat in school instead fine.. I do ask.. sometimes they dont tell. My school has it printed on the bottom of their bill to pay the balance before school is over... I pay the next day its all good.. dont worry I dont skip out on paying for my kids lunches

I dont know about you but sometimes we dont even get our calendars until the month is half over.