A few years ago when I was on the board of the Chatham Park PTO, I had a lengthy conversation with the food director of Haverford School District (HSD). I'll get to why I had the need to chat with the Director in a second. First let's think about what happened in a Texas town and on Facebook over school lunches: Bus driver Johnny Cook went onto Facebook, voiced his frustration over one of his students being denied lunch for lack of funds, and was promptly fired for doing so. Here's Mr. Cook's post: A middle schooler got on my bus this evening and said mr johnny im hungry. I said why are you hungry buddy? Didn't you eat lunch ? He said no sir I didn't have any money on my account. I said they would let you charge it? No sir. Huh! What! This child is already on reduced lunch and we can't let him eat. Are you kidding me? I'm certain there was leftover food thrown away today. But kids were turned away because they didn't have .40 on there account . As a tax payer, I would much rather feed a child than throw it away. I would rather feed a child than to give food stamps to a crack head. My number is (…) the next time we can't feed a kid for forty cent, please call me . We will scrape up the money. This is what the world has come to. Mr. Cook is looking for another job while the country looks to him as a seemingly lone voice over what is being called "school hunger:" when students are denied lunch at school because their parents/guardians owe lunch money. Social media and employment issues aside, the bus driver's firing off about his district's lunch system and his subsequent firing from his job hit a nerve across the US. School hunger happens all over the country, and frustrating cafeteria woes seem par for the course in any public school system. Each school has its own way of dealing with school hunger and lunch money processing. In an overwhelming majority of districts, children are given a supplementary meal even if they cannot pay. There are also federal … [Read more...]