A lunchroom employee at Mascoma Valley Regional High School in New Hampshire was reportedly fired after she allowed a student with an $8 deficit on his school lunch tab to take his food with the promise of paying later. Bonnie Kimball has worked the register, sold drinks, and made smoothies and ice cream sundaes for the hundreds of kids at the high school. According to Kimball, on March 28, a student came to her register with some a la carte food on his tray. The student owed $8 in school lunch debt. Kimball sent him through, quietly telling him to remind his mother to put some money on his food card.
The following day, according to the Union Leader, the student came in and paid up the account. Meanwhile, Kimball was called into the office by two lunchroom managers and fired. She told the Valley News that, “It was my life for five years. I went and I took care of another family. You don’t just lose a family member, be OK and move on.” Kimball also expressed frustration because she says she was really only doing what she had been told to do by the lunchroom manager.
According to the Leader and the News, Kimball’s former employer Cafe Services was facing a contract renewal, and faced competition. A manager from the competitor was on site that day, and according to Kimball, her Cafe Services manager told her not to “pull trays,” meaning don’t make any scenes with the kids surrounding the foods they could and could not have because of cost. This is big money stuff, to be sure, as the Valley News explains that contracts are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Cafe Services submitted a bid last week projecting it could generate $564,142 in revenue supplying food to Mascoma students, with about $16,360 of that going directly to the school district.
Meanwhile, the Sheldon, Vt.-based Abbey Group believes it could see revenue of $578,892, but only $67 would be turned over to the district.
The Union Leader spoke with school officials who said they could not comment on Kimball’s job situation as she was employed by an outside service, saying that the school district’s policy was that no child should be refused food. Kimball says that school officials have been very supportive of her, and she’s only frustrated with Cafe Services for firing her. The Valley News was given a copy of Kimball’s most recent review, which supports Kimball’s assertion that she was a well thought-of employee, and the company’s own reasoning for firing her falls in line with Kimball’s recounting of events.
“On March 28, a District manager was on-site and witnessed a student coming through the line with multiple food items that you did not charge him for,” said the letter, which Kimball shared with the Valley News. “This is a strict violation of our Cash Handling Procedures, the Schools Charge Policy and Federal Regulation governing free meals.”
Kimball has received support from people in the Canaan community, including opinion pieces lambasting her treatment. Kimball doesn’t have a job lined up yet, telling the News, “I’m just dealing with so much right now: the public, paperwork. One minute I’m mad and the next minute, I just want to forget it all happened. I guess I’m mourning my job.” The Union Ledger reports that after all of that, Cafe Services’ bid won them a contract extension.
One of the most iconic and emotionally crushing scenes in Western literature is young orphan Oliver Twist going up to ask Mr. Bumble,”Please, sir, I want some more." It is devastating and was published in the first half of the 19th century, when children were frequently forced to work jobs and hours that would be considered monstrously exploitative for adults today, let alone children. Treating the people that are actually feeding our children like criminals puts those people into the awful position of becoming Mr. Bumble and refusing our kids food.
