Stacy Koltiska was happy working in an elementary school cafeteria. But after a new policy dictated that any student with a balance of at least $25 would be denied a hot lunch, she was troubled enough to quit after two years on the job.
Rule 808.1 states that any child in grades 7-12 whose parents owe $25 or more will not receive a lunch at all; those in grades K-6 can charge an “alternate lunch.” In these instances, cafeteria workers at the school were told to give out a cold sandwich consisting of one piece of cheese on bread.
Koltiska told NBC News she finds it “shameful.”
“I have no problem holding parents accountable, but kids need the energy to focus throughout the day,” Koltiska said Wednesday. “Don’t our children have enough to deal with?”
Last Thursday, Koltiska shared her resignation from Wylandville Elementary School on Facebook.
“[Students] are being given One Piece of Cheese on Bread. This isn’t even being toasted. Yet they are still being charged the FULL PRICE of a HOT LUNCH that is being DEINIED (sic) to them,” she wrote.
Koltiska was forced to take a first grade boy’s hot meal and give him the cheese sandwich. “I will never forget the look on his face and then his eyes welled up with tears,” she added.
Read more about this cafeteria worker and her ideas to help low income students at NBC News.