I read a lot of news from a lot of venues and am seeing the story about the tossing the school lunches of kids who's parents owe money to be just about everywhere today.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/01/school-tossed-kids-lunches-in-trash-over-money-owed/

Many of the comments are bagging on the Mormons for this. They don't see a disconnect. As well they probably shouldn't!

"Families.....Come to Utah - Learn Real Family Values. Here, we starve poor children. And...we add the extra bonus of abject humiliation: Just in case poverty hasn't destroyed enough of their self esteem. Utah: The Mormon State."

"The Gospel According to Gerald...9:2.....And His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this child or his parents, that he be crying from hunger?" Jesus answered, " It was neither that this child sinned, nor his parents; for this school is run by the Tea Party Mormons. And they shall pay dearly later at my gates for they heed not my example to feed the poor. And their self-righteous piety offends me greatly."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2014 03:05PM by Devoted Exmo.

Nice that Utah is getting a little name recognition.
This on top of the other.

"But wait! There's more!"
Can't wait to see what they come up with next.

The Mormon moment continues ;)

Here's a link to the story on NBC.com:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/30/22504777-reports-lunches-seized-from-utah-schoolkids-because-of-unpaid-bills?lite

My daughter and I were listening to this on the radio this morning. She told me this happened to her last week. She is in junior high in Murray, UT. She said she had her lunch in her hands and they told her she didn't have enough money and took it away from her. I don't know if they threw it away, but I am so angry!

being a child, gay, AND poor!

Imagine taking food from a hungry child for something the child has no control over.

Imagine threatening twelve year olds with damnation for masturbating.

Imagine teaching kids that science is wrong.

Imagine forcing people to make back payments if they want to attend their son's and daughter's weddings.

Imagine telling people what underwear they must wear and then selling it to them.

Now you're thinking of Mormonism.

+ 100

Nailed it.

And... it's gone international.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/30/utah-school-district-meals-taken-away-pupils

There's some real zingers in the comments!

'The first notification was from my daughter, when she called me crying,' he said. 'I'd understand if it was $50, but this was just a few dollars. One parent was negative $2.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2548933/Elementary-school-throws-away-40-students-lunches-parents-payments.html

I just saw a preview for the story on the CBS Evening News before they cut away to a commercial.

How cruel must a person be to give a child food and then take it away and not let him/her eat it?

The way they went about it is cruel, but as a teacher I've never seen a child go without lunch. Generally a child with a deficit lunch account will be given a PBJ sandwich or something similar. After a few days of eating the same thing the child will get bored enough with it to nag the parent to pay up.

They do the same thing here in Colorado (give PBJ sandwich), as well as when we lived in another state back east. No child was ever not given lunch or had it taken away. Some school districts will even allow the kids to charge a couple of extra regular lunches before starting the PBJ lunches.

I agree that the staff should have been paying attention and not served them the lunches to begin with; since they were served, they should have been allowed to eat it instead of having it tossed and replaced with milk and fruit. However, it is the parents' responsibility to make sure their children are fed. We (society, parents, whatever) wouldn't expect a fast food place to give kids free meals because their parents dropped them off to meet friends and forgot to give the kids money.

you are missing the part where plenty of parents have already paid, yet their payments went missing or unaccounted for. I am one of those parents. So please stop pointing fingers. I want my child to eat. I am not sitting in line waiting for a free meal. Please get your facts straight. I never "forgot" to give money. How dare you.

The news links don't mention anything about how the students had money/positive balances. It mentions specifically that their accounts did not have sufficient funds.

and why didn't they have sufficient funds when their parents added money to it on a regular basis like I did?

What program do they use? My son's school (not Utah) uses myschoolbucks (which I'm not thrilled with, but it's passable). They give a clear "funds may take several days to appear in your child's account, so check to make sure" warning during payment. If I were to make a payment to his account tonight, it would likely not show up in time for lunch tomorrow.

Did this really happen because the accounts showed postive, showed all of the payments as posted, and then suddenly didn't?

like I stated before. My school district has access to an online system that keeps track of what you add and what your kid uses. But our school district doesn't use it. Why? I don't know.

I have added money to my childs account several times, and yes, it never showed up. I'm glad your system works, but the ones around here are archaic and don't always work. So kids are punished. Even when parents pay.

Sounds like a lack of financial transparency. Gee, where have I heard that before?

School lunch and fast food are equivalent? I never realized any of my property tax dollars went to fast food establishments. Learn something new every day. </s>

Do property tax funds in Utah go to pay for school lunches? Schools, yes, but it's pretty standard that parents pay for their children's school lunches (unless the kids qualify for the free lunch program). I would say that maybe Utah has something quirky where all kids are provided with free lunch as part of their education, but that obviously isn't the case.

I don't live in Utah, so I don't know how the school board uses those dollars. I just know as a person who never has had and never will have children in public school, some of my property tax dollars go to pay for the education of children for whom I am not financially responsible. As far as I know, my property tax dollars aren't paying for anything at a fast food establishment. Do you have children who have received a public education?

If the food was going to be thrown away, why not let the kids eat it and add it to the parents' tab? Many restaurants and fast food establishments give their leftover food that would otherwise be thrown away to charities who feed the hungry. Maybe that doesn't happen in Utah. Let those lazy hungry people, especially the kids, go without, right?

It made NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams!

Mormons and Utahns keep handing us this material! They are so generous!

What I don't understand is why the kids don't pay FIRST. Then, before the food is served, they know if there is money in the account. If there isn't, then the child can get a pb&j or fruit or whatever. But to humiliate a child who has already been served seems cruel - especially for something that they can't help. It wouldn't be so mean to say "Honey, you are out of money in your account so you'll have to choose between a sandwich or some fruit - be sure and tell your mom to put more money in your account." But to get a child all served then act like they are deadbeats...

I wondered about that as well. It might be because kids can add optional items (at extra cost) to their lunches, i.e. juice, cookies, ice cream, etc. As a teacher, I only rarely get the school lunch, but if I do I am charged a la carte for each item. So it might work like any other cafeteria where the cashier has to see what exactly you've selected.

Agree. It's not the kids' fault if they don't have lunch money (usually, unless they were given cash and spent it on something else). The school already distributed the lunches. When they realized some of the kids were in the negative, they should have just noted it for the next day.

they do this in Colorado. You punch in your # first to see if you have money. If you don't, then you don't get lunch. In Utah, they charge you after the fact. After you have picked up your lunch.

I'm a paying parent.
Why can't my kid get a free lunch like those who are below the poverty level?

I paid my property taxes. Therefore I helped fund food for the poor, who obviously can't afford to pay property taxes.
Yet, the 'rich' kids get slapped when the payments are occasionally late.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2014 08:07PM by mostcorrectedbook.

Are you saying it would have been OK if it had been just poor kids?

and property taxes have what to do with feeding hungry kids?

because you don't qualify?