Davidson Co. Schools Decide Not to Throw Away Food Students Can't Pay For, But Will They Feed Them?

 

On Friday, news came out that the Director of School Nutrition for Davidson County had sent an email to all school lunchroom managers that kids would no longer be allowed to "charge" the cost of their meals to their lunchroom accounts. They either had to return to the cash register and pay up, or the food would be discarded.

The backlash and bad PR was instant and fierce.

Less than 24 hours later, that same director of nutrition reversed the policy: 

Admittedly, discarding food as a means of addressing this complex issue was not the correct
approach, and we regret that it was not considered more carefully before being communicated
to child nutrition staff. It is not the expectation that meals will be thrown away; prior to the
COVID-19 pandemic universally free benefits, our high schools were able to successfully
implement this same policy. We are committed to reviewing the school nutrition no-charge
policy adopted in 2011, reinstating some of the strategies that enabled us to manage this
successfully before, and consider other recommended best practices for balancing a no-charge
policy expectation by USDA with the goal of ensuring all children have the opportunity for
access to a healthy meal during the school day.

The question still hanging out there for me: No throwing food away, but does every kid get a meal regardless of their ability to pay? 

This national atmosphere of casual cruelty is all Donald Trump's fault.