Lunches seized from kids in debt at Salt Lake City elementary

On Tuesday at lunch up to 40 kids Unitah Elementary picked up theirs lunches, then watched as their meals were taken and thrown away because of outstanding balances on their accounts. This move shocked and angered parents. Jason Olsen, a Salt Lake City District spokesman, said the district’s child-nutrition department had just became aware that Uintah had a large number of students who owed money for lunches.

So this resulted in the child-nutrition manager visiting the school and deciding to withhold lunches to deal with this issue, he said. But cafeteria workers weren't able to see which children owed money until they had already received lunches, Olsen explained.The workers then had to take those lunches from the students and threw them away, he said, because once food is served to one student it can’t be served to another. Children whose lunches were taken were given milk and fruit instead. The school did say staffers typically tell students about any balances as they go through the lunch line and send home notifications to parents each week.The district attempted to contact parents with balances via phone Monday and Tuesday, Olsen said, but weren't able to reach them all before the child-nutrition manager decided to take away the students’ lunches.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57468293-78/lunches-olsen-lunch-district.html.csp