This country is seriously fucked up. We need a high minimum tax on the 1%ers and on corporations pronto.

They should've at least boxed the meals up and given them to the homeless.

over 'concerns' of malnutrition and a working mind that is deprived from hunger. That is a sad statement.

What's ours

There seems to be an ever growing segment of our population that are just downright mean, and the meanness seems to always be directed at the poor...... I'd say they should be roundly and publicly shamed , except assholes like this have no sense of shame.... none at all

and defenseless.
Children do not earn money to pay for their meals.
Adults - either the parents or society- must care for and provide for them.
What a terrible reflection on those who denied food to children.
Those children will always remember this incident.

If someone abused my child that way, I would not be kind at all in dealing with them

When they were ordered to throw their lunches away, those students should have refused. My daughter would have been taught along those lines - bullying is bullying, and I don't give a rat's ass if it comes from an "authority figure."

they might then have been punished or even had the police called on them, since schools seem to be using the police more and more just for basic control, even against kindergartners.

but we generally teach respect for authority and elders, so I think that would have been asking a bit much.

to create doormats.

My parents were able to teach us to respect authority but question it if you felt they were doing something wrong. I am so glad they did. There are few if any people I've ever been intimidated by because I learned to speak up if something didn't "sit right" with my instincts.

Just saying... what you seem to refer to as "doormats" are generally referred to as "still employed" in my experience.

And, still in school.

Intimidation is one thing. Understanding the power structure within which one exists and being realistic is something else. They may look similar from as little as a few inches distance, however.

On more than one occasion our mom had to get little brother out of the principals office because he referred to the staff as "The Gestapo". Not the best choice of words to express his displeasure, to be sure, but he never DID back down from a fight he thought was worthwhile lol.

And yeah, what a dick move.

Most people would have said, "Well, we are probably going to lose money on these few accounts, some good may as well come from that if it can, so let the kids eat.", but oh no, not THESE fuckers:

"Were going to lose money on this if the kids eat that OR we just throw it out...I know, lets make the kids SUFFER for our loss, lets take out our frustrations on THE INNOCENT, at least we will FEEL like we got our pound of flesh, even if we didn't."

i'm just sayin. it's the middle class kids that have to pay for their lunches, and a lot of schools don't handle the money collection very well.

that said, this is insane.

Essentially toadyism is encouraged in a great many ways in corporate America, it's a rotten system and a rotten way to force people to act.

but yeah, Yes Men rule the world now.

I don't expect the middle school lunch contractors to be a nuclear physicist but you'd think they at least would understand food in the trash vs in a kid's stomach affect the profit equally.

and privatization ...For profit edukashun...

as soon as I read the word "contractor", I pretty much knew everything I needed to know

him/herself to order little kids to throw away their lunches. I need to see who is low enough to do such a thing.

This effing asshat, Mr "ketchup is a vegetable". The kind of poisonous thinking and hateful attitudes that lead to incidents like this one. The worship of his kind of evel has brought this nation to the brink of ruin

Well said.

to tell us how it's the fault of the parents for not filling out the proper paperwork to get the free\reduced meals and that no children were traumatized blah, blah, blah...

and the reduced/free lunches continue throughout the school term. It was most likely children of parents who were behind on the lunch bill. Regardless, what a horrible way to handle the situation..

...to before the service area, so they could turn the children away before "they made 25 children throw away their lunches" got in the paper.

How much you want to bet the root cause of this is the evil contractors putting delightful treats on the line that don't come with the meal but can be paid for with your lunch ticket? Little kids don't understand things like balances, and the contractors know this.

The real root cause is privatization. But we all know that.

Schools with low or no funding hire contractors who do exactly what is happening here. Not only that, but some custodial corporate companies go short on the cleaning of schools and in the materials that are used. We all know that schools with kids = germ factories. Do you want your kid's school cleaned with the cheap watered down stuff?

I bet a lot of the parents will move their kids to a new school. Fuck that!

And that's saying something.

already had the food - how could they let children go without? Callous and cruel.

The whole procedure needs reviewing.

for god's sake. Those jerks aren't going to get paid by the trashcan, either! At least let it do some good!

was ever denied food. And, the older, larger boys received larger portions. I know this to be true because I was a student there during that period.

in Arkansas, in the 1960s. Morning milk was 5 cents for an 8-ounce carton.

Last edited Mon Apr 8, 2013, 08:38 PM - Edit history (1)

when a concerted effort was being made to lift people out of poverty and make sure all kids had the nourishment they needed for the day.

I have no idea what it's going to take to rid us of the Republican sickness.

What is becoming of our nation?

I raised three kids in that school system and if ever one didn't have money for lunch they would just tell him to bring it in tomorrow.

This is what happens when you start hiring for-profits to do things a city should hire an actual employee to do.

When I was a kid - quite a while ago now - the cafeteria staff were all school employees. A policy which I am sure was long ago abandoned in the name of exploitation and greed, err, privatization.

where I sub for all grades when needed (one connected building and cafeteria serves all the grades, at different breakfast and lunch times), this would never have happened or been tolerated. For one thing, the school takes care of it itself, it doesn't contract the food service out and it hires local community people, who all know each other and the children. For another, I have personally witnessed times when children haven't had enough prepaid credits or money and were waved through with no problem, (usually saying "just bring it tomorrow or have mom or dad call), and, for another, the district's culture simply wouldn't go for it. There have even been times when I, as a sub, have been short a bit (we have to pay for our lunches same as the other teachers and the students) and have simply been told to take care of it later, when I can.

That kind of thing used to be commonplace; I know, 'cause my parents were teachers. But cash-strapped districts that barely have the money for even the basics of education anymore are more and more contracting out to for-profit private contractors who usually aren't from the community and whose only concern regarding the community is how much money it can suck up from students and teachers. When profit and the bottom line are all that matters, which is true for most private businesses, this is the kind of shit that will result. Now, profit is fine for most businesses. But there are some areas that should never be privatized; public education and services, prisons and public health are prime among them.

Last edited Thu Apr 4, 2013, 06:28 PM - Edit history (1)

problem solved

A truly warped person/company.

What the fuck? That's it. Time to call for the close loophole in the taxes for the wealth and long overdue to raise the fuckin' taxes on the wealth to pay for the lunch foods in the schools. Fuck that person who forced these kids to throw away the lunches. Fuck that contractor for over priced lunch foods.

America the greatest country in the world? My ass!

My exp. has been that it usually takes 3 dozen or so before they REALLY start to get pissed at what is going on. Welcome to the Revolution, friend,

And welcome to DU.

Oh, by the way:

That is one thing you do not ever do. You do not deprive a child of food. What the fuck wear they thinking. Some people do not have a functioning brain...

what they did was write down the student info. i dont' remember exactly what happened but i think they contact the parents in some way to let them know.

but the student is still fed.

Is smiling.

send a message that you don't care about kids' well-being, they'll likely grow up and return the favor someday.

schools in my area have been doing this for years or alternately some will give the kid a brown bag 'charity lunch'
There is a federal free and reduced cost lunch program, however various school officials have admitted they use enrollment in this program to earmark kids as potential low preforming trouble makers and treat them as such

Shouldn't other adults have intervened to stop this?

for now, but it should serve as a bellwether of what is on the horizon should the corporatization of public education, it's business model and movement not be discredited and utterly defeated.

We're not in that school district, elsewhere in the state.

I would not equate this with poor/free lunches or anything else. Whitsons has a pretty slick online system where parents are able to put money into it. The agreement still stands in our area (I checked today) that kids will still get meals if they forget their money or the balances are low. It's simply owed. And it's been in place for the last couple of years with the prior vender and all school year this year with Whitsons as well.

It sounds like there's something else going on here and a situation where not all the real details come out.

their prepaid accounts by a few bucks, then settle within a few days.
This contractor is an asshole. There is no reason for this. I hope the school fires them.

Where the hell was the principal in this? Why didn't she (he) tell the contractor to lighten up and let the kids eat?

Oh yeah, that's nutritionally balanced. So what do kids ''get'' who can pay? The richest country in the world and people are going hungry? Not acceptable, No. What is wrong with this country? Just ridiculous, ridiculous. I use to work in a ''high-end'' restaurant and I've seen what the rich throw away .. you think we could possibly afford to support our local school cafeterias .. with proper nutrition for these kids? How about some fresh fruit and vegetables ? Is that too much to ask for in this ''great'' country. Okay I am finished ranting.

Very well said.

Normally I wouldn't say this, but if I had been anywhere near that asshole, he would have been trying to breathe through a broken nose.

-- Mal

This sucks.

I hate it when people are cruel to kids, but I love to see it when they get caught. Now, maybe they will be forced to do the right thing and feed the children.

my 7th grader was warned when entering the school cafeteria that he would be denied lunch after that day if his bill was not paid by the next day. They have lunch cards that are scanned, I guess kind of like a debit card. I did promptly pay the bill, but I cannot imagine what my reaction would have been had he been put through the embarrassment and bullying these children in the news story had to go through. They threw away the food??!!

I would have paid for their lunch myself, and I HAVE before, rather than let a child go hungry. FIRE ME if you think that is WRONG.

BTW, cooked food cannot be kept from one day to the next by health regulations. It must be thrown out. I have worked in schools where kitchen staff, and any poor parent, could come at the end of the day and get food FREE that would have been thrown in the garbage. Yet, CHILDREN cannot have food at lunch that will be thrown in the garbage at the end of the day?

OUTSOURCING SUCKS. Screw them. Stand up for the children, STAFF. Get a SPINE.

Edit: I have never worked in a school which outsourced food services, although I have where they did for janitor services. I could tell stores about THAT. The few times I paid for a child's lunch it was not because the child was denied ANYTHING for lunch. Even if parents were in arrears, the student was given a peanut butter and jelly or cheese sandwhich. I paid when I knew the child didn't want that and refused to eat it. I wrote a note to the parent saying I paid for their HOT lunch because their child wouldn't eat the sandwhich and they couldn't get a hot meal. I told them to send their child into school with a home lunch if they couldn't pay their bill right away. I was always paid back the next day (humiliation?) and/or they paid the bill, or more often, gave their child something to bring into school for lunch.

positively disgusting. Someone should be fined and sentenced to feed all those kids for the next year and a half on their paycheck.

As soon as the word "contractor" comes up, the fix is past in.

Throw away the food-----obviously there was no money saved by this action.

If you are going to take a hard-assed position on lunch money, I would think that warnings for being out of money would be the way to go. Let them know ahead of time that they will not be able to get lunch the next day if they don't have the money. It isn't like the kids who were "punished" are the responsible parties here.

I would've spent every penny I had to give those kids food. Damn! When did people become so callous??

Where was the person who could foot-on-throat tell "the contractor responsible" to go fuck themselves? The money can get worked out, but in the meantime, no child should go hungry or be traumatized.

they would have been charged with abuse

... is the key word in this article that everyone here seems to be missing. This was some MID or LOW LEVEL EMPLOYEE of the outsourced food vendor (isn't privatization wonderful!) who was scared that THEY would be in trouble if they didn't "DO SOMETHING".

This was not a school administrator or lunch lady it was a PRIVATE CONTRACTOR running a BUSINESS to PROFIT OFF OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM.

And our sorry-assed school system administrators who outsourced this function? For often very dubious "reasons"? BLAME THEM.

Something stinks about this story. I suspect the contractors were put under pressure to crack down on the overcharges. Why all of a sudden we're students cracked down on when overcharges were allowed to accumulate up till that day? And you are right about the school system contracting out and the school absolves itself of any oversight? Ridiculous.

In order to breed contempt of the poor, it is necessary to be contemptuous of the poor.

In a capitalist society, the motive behind the production of food is not to feed people, housing is not made to give them shelter, clothing is not made to keep them warm, and health care is not offered primarily to keep people healthy. All of these things, which are and should be viewed as basic rights, are nothing other than commodities—to be bought and sold—from which to make a profit. If a profit cannot be made, usually due to overproduction in relation to the market, the commodity is considered useless by the capitalist and destroyed.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/american-dream-food-loaded-into-dumpsters-while-hundreds-of-hungry-americans-restrained-by-police/5329966