A cafeteria worker in Pennsylvania has quit her job after refusing to follow a new lunch policy that required her to take away hot meals from students with outstanding bills.
Stacy Koltiska, who worked at an elementary school in Eighty Four, Pa., said a new rule required her to take away a student’s hot lunch and replace it with a sandwich, if the student owed $25 or more. Koltiska said the sandwich consisted of “one piece of cheese on bread.”
“I had to take a little first grade [boy’s] chicken and give him this cheese sandwich. I will never forget the look on his face and then his eyes welled up with tears,” Koltiska wrote in a Facebook post about why she decided to resign.
She also added the bread isn’t toasted and the hot meal that she takes away is thrown out.
According to Canon-McMillan School District’s new policy “if a student overdraws their cafeteria account by $25 then there are two possibilities depending on the grade of the student: If that child is kindergarten to Grade 6, that child may charge an alternative lunch, which consists of a ‘sandwich, a fruit/vegetable serving and milk.’ If the student is in Grade 7 to 12, then they are “not be allowed to charge any additional lunches.”
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Koltiska also wrote in her Facebook post that the students who are allowed the sandwich lunch are still being charged “full price” as if they were paying for a hot meal.
WPXI News wrote that the school district issued a statement on Facebook stating in part: “The purpose of Policy 808.1 is to resolve what has become a statewide issue at our local level. It is to address accountability for deficit lunch accounts accrued by families with the ability to pay for their child’s school meals.”
Another statement issued by the district on their official site went on to explain that they do not take away lunches from students. The statement said the policy was implemented so students with outstanding bills would not be allowed to “continuously overdraw a school lunch credit.”
According to Canon-McMillan School District, a free or reduced lunch program is in place for families who require some assistance. The board adds that should outstanding balances hit $25, families are given “more than two weeks to resolve the account before it affects the lunch items available to their child.”
Koltiska calls the policy “sickening.” She’s urging people to email the superintendent and director of business and finance to voice their feelings.
The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) states that in 2014, 39 per cent, or 1,044,737 American children, live in a low-income household.
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