Being a teacher, I wouldn't have the option of running to the ATM during my 26-minute lunch period . . . so I'd make do. I'd scrounge through my desk and find some crackers or something. And my kids could do the same thing: they could look through their bookbags to see what kind of goodies they might have rumbling around in there, they could borrow some money from a friend (we're talking about teenagers, remember -- they have a couple dollars in their pockets), they could mouch a little from a couple friends' lunches . . . or, they could get the not-so-yummy sandwich that the lunchroom is required to give students who forget their lunch.
No healthy child is going to become ill because he misses one meal -- our bodies just aren't that delicate. My teenager eats lunch at 12:30 and gets out of school at 2:15. She's not going to starve. We're raising a generation that includes a large number of overly-coddled kids who aren't able to deal with difficulties, and it's a bad thing on multiple levels. This is just one example of it.