Lunch-dumping column generates plenty of responses to chew on

My column a couple of weeks ago on school lunch policies generated a lot of responses. Hot lunch, apparently, is a hot topic.

In case you missed it, Linn-Mar, like a long list of other school districts around the area and state, gives high school kids no leeway when it comes to lunch account balances. If a student's family account slips into the red, you get no lunch. In fact, your uneaten lunch is left with the cashier, soon to be dumped in the trash.

It happened to my freshman daughter on a recent Monday. The $4 worth of food on her tray was trashed over a $1.90 account deficit. The blame was her parents' for not refilling the account.

It struck me as wasteful and unfair to punish her or other kids for someone else's dumb mistake. We're in charge of filling the lunch account. And it seems like there's got to be a better way to deal with negative account balances. Linn-Mar contends the state pushed them to adopt such a policy due to an $8,000 lunch account deficit. I pointed out that's a tiny fraction of the district's nutrition budget, and that some other schools have adopted less rigid rules.

It just struck me as a lousy policy, not just for my kid, but for all kids.

I wrote roughly 1,000 words. Readers responded with more than 4,000 of their own.

Some of you agreed with me.

'I fully concur with your disgust over Linn-Mar High School's food dumping policy. Shaming a student, either publicly or privately, is reprehensible. The policy deserves the 'boo” spotlight that you gave them,” one reader wrote.

Another wrote, 'I agree with you. School districts should dump their policy and go back to the drawing board! Sorry to hear about your daughter's cafeteria experience. That policy isn't fair. No student in Iowa should be denied food when we are the 'bread basket of the world”

'How refreshing to read a column that isn't politically driven for a change…,” wrote a reader, perhaps relieved to know Donald Trump had nothing to do with this.

But others disagreed, some strongly.

A few insisted I 'abused” my position as a columnist by writing about my daughter's experience. One caller suggested I unfairly targeted lunch staff. I tried to make it clear in the column this is a school board-approved policy. Lunch staff are merely carrying it out, as they must.

I was trying to shame the school, another argued. Not my intent.

I tried to broaden the focus beyond my daughter to all of the other kids who might be affected. But several readers wanted to bring the focus back to our failure to teach our daughter 'personal responsibility.”

'I have to say I was dismayed to see your entire column last Sunday devoted to making excuses for your teenager,” a reader wrote.

'I must respond to your article out of frustration,” another reader wrote. 'I have been in education for 21+ years. I am seeing a very troubling trend. Parents not wanting to take responsibility for their children because they are 'too busy”. Children not turning in homework because they are too busy in the evening. Too busy to read at night. The excuses go on and on. '

Another wrote, 'Now, let's go back to basics - is your way of parenting reminding your children every morning before they leave for school that nothing is their responsibility, and it's always easy to blame things on someone else? In fact, the next step for you would be to call a lawyer to sue the school system because your entire family is just too busy to remember to pay for school lunches!!”

Another insisted the lunch account is my daughter's responsibility, like driving a car with her learner's permit. 'The young woman who must certainly take care of her personal hygiene needs is unable to remember to remind her parents about the lunch money? When your child is old enough to drive by herself, who is going to send you an email the car is low on gas? Aren't these all instances when we need to trust our children, and if they disappoint us and are irresponsible, life will enforce the lesson …

'Perhaps your wife should have been less concerned about the homecoming dance or editing your column. We know that shelter and food are basic needs that need to take priority in our lives.”

Another reader agreed, arguing my daughter 'owns the problem.”

'If we want our children to become independent, we cannot hover over them, beat our chests, write columns and assume what is their responsibility,” the reader argued.

To be fair, none of these folks know my daughter. If they did, they might find out she's been getting up with her alarm at 6 a.m. for years, gets ready for school like clockwork, makes her breakfast and is organized far beyond the abilities of her mortal parents. I can't recall ever having to prompt her to study or make sure her school work is done. In three years of middle school, her lowest grade was - A. Perfect? No. She's not a fan of household chores. Like pulling teeth.

Still, she's responsible every day for a remarkable, dizzying array of things. But, at the risk hastening society's decline, filling her school lunch account is not one of them. That one's on us. Think of it less like driving a car and more like depending on your employer to issue your paycheck.

And there are probably lots of responsible kids with parents who blow it. And the solution to that problem is dumping those kids' lunch in the trash?

As for the 'lesson” my daughter learned, maybe it's that big institutions can be mistaken and wasteful. And it's perfectly OK to question them when they are.

Also, I'd submit that the district's main defenses of the policy, that it's the result of a state mandate and that other schools are doing it, don't exactly scream taking responsibility.

So I still think it should be dumped. A reader also concerned about the policy said she's been told Linn-Mar's Policy Committee, made up of three school board members and the superintendent, plans to discuss the issue next month. The district has yet to confirm that.

Also, a person I know who very much dislikes lunch-dumping handed me a check for $500, hoping to start a fund for Linn-Mar High School kids who come up short at lunch. This extremely generous person does not want to be named. The Gazette currently is working on a plan to put that donation, and potentially others, to work on this issue. Stay tuned.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd,dorman@thegazette.com