• Posted on 5th April 2014
• in This-n-that
• by Dragonfly

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Have you seen this news coverage?

So have I. Made my stomach sick. made me think “Man I am glad we live in Alaska. I know we would never do that to our children at the schools.”

THAN I went to our Middle school and found out that I was wrong. Most of you know what the SBA’s are all about. we have 4 day’s worth of testing to find out if the teachers are doing the job we pay them to do. During these days a lot of our local schools have huge free breakfasts for all the kids so that they know they are using a fully fed mind to get the best possible score on the test. Those teachers they want to make sure all of the teaching they have been doing shows. why wouldn’t they? soon their job status will rely on those test… or so they feel. Wouldn’t you think that those same teachers/administrators would want those children to have a full belly AFTER all the testing.

I have been a mentor in the local Middle school this whole year. getting to know 3 amazing children that other wise could fall through the cracks. Home life isn’t so bad that they need to have intervention, school behavior isn’t bad enough to have a shadow and school work is on the cusp.They are just right there… not really tons of friends, no real sense of Belonging. so Where do these kids fit in? That is what this program has been about. giving these kids a place to fit in and call it their own. Helping them grow strong in themselves. and to know that there are adults that are behind them and rooting for them. Me and another Mentor have worked closely together and our 6 kids have become part of a school family with us. Love all these kids so much. (stick with me the story is getting there)

The other mentor, lets call her “sweet” to my sour, and I decided that on the LAST DAY of SBA’s we would bring the kids lunch and sit with them. because of the crazy testing schedule we wouldn’t be able to have our normal mentor session. But what better way to show them we care how well they do. That we care about them getting fed. That we love and want to spend time with them. THAN to take the time to bring them lunch after a long and taxing week. 🙂

So we told them “Thursday we will bring you lunch. meet us in the lunch room and all will be there for you. It’ll be a Sweet ‘N Sour Party like no other and you are all the guests of Honor!” Okay I said some of that in my mind…. but they are used to my weirdness thank GOODNESS! SHOW up we did. and we did it in style. Sweet lives on a farm outside city limits. and her Farm is alive with newborn life. My little backyard chickens are thriving and showing us what spring is all about. 🙂 new LIFE! so Sweet brought in some sweet baby bunnies only 2 days old. and I left the 20 hour old chicks at home but will be armed with pictures for the kids next week. (see why I am the sour part of the deal here) We brought in a table cloth and a make your own Peanut butter and jelly stand with fresh fruit some juice and a few bags of chips. Once we were set up… the kids were all sorts of happy making sammies and laughing and enjoying …

than I realized. NO PLATES!

Where was my head.

so UP I go to the lunch line to ask for 6 of the entree plates they have.

We don’t normally give those away but I will let you have the few for the kids. I was saying thank you when I heard…

“Sorry you can’t have the lunch. you don’t have enough money. You will have to check at the office for a cup of soup.” her hands on the lunch she was taking it from the grasp of the young man standing in front of me……… she is going to take it from him and can it be serves after he touched it NO! so it will be counted as a loss and thrown away…

WHAT????

You are KIDDING ME!?!?

“You are short $.40” lunch lady says… Still taking it away. as he is holding on for dear life.

again… ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!?!?!?!?

I Spoke up not being able to handle that at all…. “I WILL PAY FOR IT. LET HIM HAVE IT!” so she wrote the child’s name down and let him leave with the lunch.

I went to my coat and got some money payed for his lunch and left this boy more for Friday. I asked her if there were other kids she denied that day that needed money on the account. she told me yes but couldn’t remember who those kids were so I could leave more money for them as well. ARE YOU KIDDING ME????? so easy to deny a child food that you cannot remember who they are?

What we have here folks is plain stupid!

As a friend wrote on my facebook page “Besides the humiliation, the throwing food away teaches kids in an increasingly populated world that food is “dispensable” , not to mention that they are so undeserving of the food that the garbage can is a better place for it.” Garnet Knopp

AMEN! we have children here that have food in their hands. we are taking it from them and feeding the garbage instead of them. WOW! there is a way to help ones self worth! “Hey kiddo you may be the future but you are not worth feeding to get you there…..”

In this schools defense they do have cup of noodles at the office to give the kids that do not have lunch. I know that they are there for the kids. BUT you are still THROWING AWAY FOOD YOU HAVE TO COUNT AS A LOSS ANYWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why not count it as a loss, give it to the child that has touched it all ready and call it good?

HERE it is on my Facebook. feel free to leave a comment there or here to show us how you feel.

Sweet N’ Sour will be setting up an account to help feed these kids. to pay for a lunch that is all ready in the hands of a child. to stop the humiliation of a child that doesn’t know they do not have enough money in their account. To make sure that the Garbage ins’t fed MORE than our Future.

We are reaching out:

The borough school office has been reached about this. We are waiting for the politically correct answer we know we will get.

The news media…. I know that a good story on the news will make them think about what they are doing.

I just got off the phone with a lunch lady that told me what the practice is.

“Federal Government says that the kids are allowed to pick up A lunch and bring it to the cashier. than we tell them they are short. We at our school (which is in the same borough) have a PTO. that is a PTA run IOU system. the child gets a lunch and the parents are given an IOU. OR we have to send them to the office with the milk and they get a lunch from the office and we throw away the lunch. That is the normal Practice for our district. All the humiliation would be solved IF they could have the lunch lady at the front of the line and there would be no waste of food!”

This lady has got it figured out. she works with the kids everyday. I wish that she would  be listened to….

DF OUT!