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ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) — As many as 25 students at a Massachusetts school were denied lunch this week because they either could not pay or their pre-paid accounts were short on funds, schools officials and parents said.

Outraged parents say some students at Coelho Middle School in Attleboro cried when they were told by a worker for the district's food service provider they could not eat on Tuesday.

The on-site director for the company, Whitsons Culinary Group of Islandia, N.Y., was placed on administrative leave by Superintendent Pia Durkin, who has also scheduled a meeting with company officials and ordered cafeteria workers not to deny any child food.

"There is no way any child in my school district will ever go hungry," Durkin told The Sun Chronicle (http://bit.ly/10yXr6y ) on Wednesday. "Children need to eat."

Students who cannot pay or whose accounts are empty are supposed to be given a cheese sandwich and milk, but that procedure was not followed at Coelho, Durkin said.

"We agree that this situation was not handled correctly," Whitsons spokeswoman Holly Von Seggern said. "We really want to apologize to the parents of the children who were affected."

Fifth-grader Victoria Greaves, 11, said she and other students who had already been served their lunch were told to throw it in the trash when they reached the checkout. The school has students in fifth through eighth grades.

Her father, John, said he was incensed that while "there are people in prison who are getting meals, my daughter, an honor student, is going hungry."

Jen Ingemi, parent of a fifth-grader, said the girl behind her son in line began crying when she was told to throw out her lunch. He said her son offered to share his.

Durkin said she was informed by Whitsons management that the total amount of outstanding credit on all students' accounts in the district comes to about $1,800.

___

Information from: The (Attleboro, Mass.) Sun Chronicle, http://www.thesunchronicle.com

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Well I imagine they didn't order cheese sandwiches so by the time they get up to the counter the situation is already messed.  Even if you let the kid or parents know in advance the kid can still go get a plate of food and feign ignorance.   In my opinion they are training these kids for the real world and in the real world if you aren't prepared and don't have funds you don't eat. Back in my day we weren't outraged at the cafeteria worker when our parents didn't give us our lunch money.  The same thing is going on here.

Students who cannot pay or whose accounts are empty are supposed to be given a cheese sandwich and milk, but that procedure was not followed at Coelho, Durkin said.


=====================

Yeah, a freaking cheese sandwich and a carton of milk is to much to give when you can humiliate a child instead, and make that child throw food away before you allow the little deadbeats to eat it. 

Originally Posted by Bestworking:

Students who cannot pay or whose accounts are empty are supposed to be given a cheese sandwich and milk, but that procedure was not followed at Coelho, Durkin said.


=====================

Yeah, a freaking cheese sandwich and a carton of milk is to much to give when you can humiliate a child instead, and make that child throw food away before you allow the little deadbeats to eat it. 

_______________

The kids can't help it if their account is short. That is on the responsibility of the parents, and the children's should not have suffered for it. 

What kind of an adult would deny a child lunch? What kind of an adult would make a child throw food away rather than letting them eat it? From all the stories out there it's plain to see we have too many people around our kids that have no idea about how to deal with or treat them. All involved in this should have been fired. 

Originally Posted by unclegus:

 The best I know of, the local school my kids went to school at makes them pay/redeem their coupon before they go through the food line, telling the cashier their choice of two different menus.

 This eliminates the embarrassment these children went through!

That would be the only way to prevent them from having to throw the food away.    Canade you say the children shouldn't have to suffer and Best you think they should just give the food to the kids.  Keeping in mind these kids are from fluent households (or it would be free in the first place)  which of you is prepared to write a check?

Originally Posted by Chuck Farley:
Originally Posted by unclegus:

 The best I know of, the local school my kids went to school at makes them pay/redeem their coupon before they go through the food line, telling the cashier their choice of two different menus.

 This eliminates the embarrassment these children went through!

That would be the only way to prevent them from having to throw the food away.    Canade you say the children shouldn't have to suffer and Best you think they should just give the food to the kids.  Keeping in mind these kids are from fluent households (or it would be free in the first place)  which of you is prepared to write a check?

===================

How do you know they're from affluent households? Did you miss this part of the article:"Students who cannot pay or whose accounts are empty are supposed to be given a cheese sandwich and milk, but that procedure was not followed at Coelho, Durkin said". I'd write a check before I'd tell a kid they couldn't eat, or force them to throw food in the garbage. Who wrote the check for the food that was thrown away? What's the big deal about handing a kid a cheese sandwich and a carton of milk, or even a full lunch, and then sending notice home to their parents that their food accounts are empty or too low? 

Originally Posted by Chuck Farley:

So they are nearly 2,000 in the red on their accounts Best, have you written a check yet?

================

I believe it states that the $1800.00 is for the district, not this one school, and apparently that's for the entire year so far. Not bad at all.  Be as snarky as you like, but I still say that humiliating those kids, and making them throw away the food, was a super #$^&*^&%^ thing to do. Answer my question, who wrote the check for the tossed food, and what happened to the meal they were supposed to get if they didn't/couldn't pay?

Now all of a sudden they can give them ALL free lunches for three days??

 

 

If students don't have enough money for lunch they are supposed to be given a cheese sandwich and milk. But this week at Cohelo Middle School, some students said they had to go hungry.

Jason Mota, an eighth-grader at the school, said he got a rude surprise.

"I had food on my tray, and they said, 'You don't have enough money.' And they made me throw it away in the trash," he said.

About 25 kids went hungry because they didn't have the cash or their pre-paid cards were maxed out.

"I am outraged first off that food was wasted over no reason. They are kids. It wasn't their fault," parent Suzanna Nie said.

Whitsons Food Service provides lunches for all Attleboro schools.

"On behalf of Whitsons, I would like to formally apologize for the recent incident that took place," said company spokeswoman Holly Van Seggern.

The company said cafeteria employees acted on their own.

"It was really stupid being the only one at my table without food," Mota said. "It was kind of embarrassing, but I was also not offered anything after."

Whitsons said the outstanding balance district wide on prepaid lunch cards is only $1,800. As a good will gesture, next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, all the kids at the middle school will be getting free lunch.



Read more: http://www.wcvb.com/news/local...x.html#ixzz2Pcz86Rkp

Originally Posted by canade:

       
Originally Posted by Bestworking:

Students who cannot pay or whose accounts are empty are supposed to be given a cheese sandwich and milk, but that procedure was not followed at Coelho, Durkin said.


=====================

Yeah, a freaking cheese sandwich and a carton of milk is to much to give when you can humiliate a child instead, and make that child throw food away before you allow the little deadbeats to eat it. 

_______________

The kids can't help it if their account is short. That is on the responsibility of the parents, and the children's should not have suffered for it. 


       


True enough.
Originally Posted by earthmomma:

       
Where were the caring teachers who could not say,"JoJo, Sallie Mae, whomever , I will pick up your lunch tab for today and today only
."  No child I ever taught would have gone without lunch!!!!.".




       


I wonder the same thing. My mom was a school lunchroom lady for many years. She payed for kids all the time who for whatever reason didn't have money for lunch.

Food workers fired as Mass. students denied lunch

 

ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) — A New York food service company says it has fired four employees after 25 students at a Massachusetts school were denied lunches this week because their prepaid accounts ran low.

Islandia-based Whitsons Culinary Group spokesman Todd Shapiro said Friday the company has "zero tolerance for any individual who leaves a child hungry."

The lunch decision had outraged parents, who said some students at Coelho Middle School in Attleboro cried after being told they couldn't eat.

Company officials said it was a violation of their policy and apologized.

Marketing vice president Holly Van Seggern says the company will give free lunches to all Coelho students for three days next week and host a barbeque for students and families later.

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/food-wor...lunch-235214235.html

Originally Posted by Bestworking:
Originally Posted by Chuck Farley:
Originally Posted by unclegus:

 The best I know of, the local school my kids went to school at makes them pay/redeem their coupon before they go through the food line, telling the cashier their choice of two different menus.

 This eliminates the embarrassment these children went through!

That would be the only way to prevent them from having to throw the food away.    Canade you say the children shouldn't have to suffer and Best you think they should just give the food to the kids.  Keeping in mind these kids are from fluent households (or it would be free in the first place)  which of you is prepared to write a check?

===================

How do you know they're from affluent households? Did you miss this part of the article:"Students who cannot pay or whose accounts are empty are supposed to be given a cheese sandwich and milk, but that procedure was not followed at Coelho, Durkin said". I'd write a check before I'd tell a kid they couldn't eat, or force them to throw food in the garbage. Who wrote the check for the food that was thrown away? What's the big deal about handing a kid a cheese sandwich and a carton of milk, or even a full lunch, and then sending notice home to their parents that their food accounts are empty or too low? 

____________________

Who paid for the food that was thrown out for no reason? Why could they not have billed the parents for the meal instead of having the children go hungry & humiliated. And YES, I would write a check to keep a child from going hungry.   

Originally Posted by Chuck Farley:
Originally Posted by unclegus:

 The best I know of, the local school my kids went to school at makes them pay/redeem their coupon before they go through the food line, telling the cashier their choice of two different menus.

 This eliminates the embarrassment these children went through!

That would be the only way to prevent them from having to throw the food away.    Canade you say the children shouldn't have to suffer and Best you think they should just give the food to the kids.  Keeping in mind these kids are from fluent households (or it would be free in the first place)  which of you is prepared to write a check?

__________

By the way, what is a "fluent" household? One that is bilingual?  I assume you meant affluent, but there was no mention of that in the article.

Wow canade you really zinged me on that typo.  Who paid for the food that was tossed out?  Obviously that was a loss.  You would rather give it to the kids.  Well if we are just giving food out who is going to get a lunch with the intent of paying for it?   What are you going to tell the parent when he said he didn't authorize the purchase? For example, he/she sends his kid to school with lunch and then get a $100 charge he/she didn't authorize for 20 school lunches. 

Not sure which part of-"the kids that don't or can't pay are supposed to be given a sandwich and milk"-you're not getting. And it's ridiculous to keep supporting someone who would toss food into the garbage before they'd let the kid have it. BTW, those workers got fired. Good. They have no business being around children since they have no idea how to treat them. I can't figure out why it's so hard to understand-you tell the child nicely to tell their parents that his/her account is low, AFTER you give them their sandwich and milk.  OR you send a notice home to their parents. You don't force them to throw food away. The company itself says that it's losses are very small-$1800 a year for the entire school district, and they are going to feed them all for three days for free.

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