Recently a story about a New Hampshire high school cafeteria worked surfaced. The employee claims that she was fired because she gave a student a free lunch who was hungry and did not have the funds to pay that day. However, the food vendor has some mixed messages to say about the incident.
Bonnie Kimball worked for Fresh Picks Cafe (Cafe Services, Inc.). They are hired by the school district. The company first denied that she was fired, saying that they would never fire an employee because they provided lunch to a student. However, the next day, the company issued a statement that said: “an unnamed employee was terminated for violating school and company policy.” Hm…
Learn more about what the company said to Bonnie
Apparently, the company offered to rehire Bonnie, provide her back pay and work on changing their policies. She refused the offer and said that she does not want to work for a company that would fire her for giving a student a free lunch. She believes the company just wanted to keep its contract with the school district after the incident went public and people were outraged.
According to Fox News, the school district in question said, “it talked with the company about the firing and that it would review its food service policies to ensure conflicts between the district and its vendors don’t come up in the future. It also said it requested the right to be released from its contract with the company next year, which would open the process to other bidders.”
Bonnie said that after she was fired she received a letter explaining why they fired her. It read: “This is in strict violation of our Cash Handling Procedures, the School Charge Policy and Federal Regulation governing free meals.”
Craziest part? The student actually paid the bill the next day. Bonnie knew the student and knew the mother would have come in and paid the bill, but she didn’t want to bother her during the day. She knew the bill would get paid the very next day, which is just another reason she gave the student a free lunch that day.
What a shame! We hope that no more incidents like this happen in schools, especially when the student can pay the bill the very next day. We hope that Bonnie finds a new job that will treat her better.
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