I posted this on DCDB a couple days ago. I'd just like to know what adult could sit down with a hot meal at a table with a child with just a p-nut butter sandwich, apple and milk.
The story came from Williamson Dialy News.
Hot lunches refused to some children
ELKINS, W.Va. (AP) - The Randolph County Board of Education is fed up with overdue school lunch bills and has decided not to allow students with bills dating to last year to charge any more hot lunches.
Instead, they get a peanut butter sandwich, an apple and a carton of milk.
''They're getting the minimum nutritional requirement,'' says Food Service Director Lorrayne Corley.
''We do not deny any child a meal. But we can't give them a full meal, because we can't allow them to charge for it.''
The state requires each county to have a collection policy for overdue meal tabs, Corley said. ''Ours was approved by the state. We want to feed the children. That's what our job should be, not collecting bills. Unfortunately, this is now part of it.''
Some parents and teachers say the policy unnecessarily punishes children for bills owed by their parents.
''It just tears me up to see a grade-school child sit down with a cold peanut butter sandwich while all the other kids are having hot meals,'' said a teacher who did not want to be identified.
''It singles them out. It's cruel,'' the teacher told The Inter-Mountain of Elkins.
Corley says, ''We gave the parents ample notice. We sent out bills in May, June, July and August saying we were going to do this. Some parents paid up right away.
''The only reason these kids are getting a peanut butter sandwich now is b°ecause their parents are failing to provide a packed lunch or money for that day's meal. It's the parents that are failing to provide.''
Elkins Middle School Principal David Roth has refused to give students the cold meal.
''Most of our kids are really too young to be responsible with money, and I don't feel it's fair to blame them for their parents' bills,'' Roth said.
A state education official defended the new county policy and said it was not uncommon around the state.
''Charging is a privilege,'' said Richard Goff, assistant director of the state Office of Child Nutrition. ''It should never get to the point where you have to revoke their charge privileges.
''But, if they're a legitimately non-needy family, who could afford to pay but continually neglect to do so, you have to draw a line somewhere,'' Goff said. ''To me, as a parent, that's child neglect, to not pay your child's meal bill after you've been notified.''
The Randolph County Board of Education is pursuing delinquent school meal accounts more than 45 days in arrears through the county magistrate court, Corley said.
Meals cost $1.05 for lunch and 80 cents for breakfast.