Cafeteria Worker Fired After Giving Free Meal To Student Who Couldn’t Pay

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A cafeteria worker in an Idaho middle school said she was fired for giving a free meal to a student who told her she was hungry and didn’t have money to pay for it, The Idaho Statesman reported Wednesday.

Human resources for Irving Middle School in Pocatello sent Dalene Bowden a termination letter that stated she was fired for stealing school district property and for inaccurate transactions in serving food, according to the report.

Bowden told the newspaper that she offered to pay $1.70 for the 12 year-old student’s meal, but her supervisor declined the money.

The school had already given her one warning for giving a student a free cookie, Bowden added.

A district school board member declined to comment to the newspaper on Bowden’s termination.

An online petition already has garnered thousands of signatures to get Bowden reinstated. Bowden also launched a GoFundMe account to raise funds to obtain a lawyer.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. I was outraged until I read that she also gave away a cookie to a another kid. This woman is a menace to society.

  2. Odds are the people who fired her consider themselves “pro-life.”

  3. Only in America does someone get fired for feeding a hungry poor child. Where is all the outrage from conservative republicans who think every fetus is a precious child of god? Why dont conservative anti abortion freaks care that children already born in this country go hungry?

  4. “Cafeteria Worker Fired After Giving Free Meal To Student Who Couldn’t Pay.”

    Once you start feeding hungry children, they just come to expect it.

    Next, they’ll want medicine. Or shelter. Or clothing.

    Where will it end?

    Takers!

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

126 more replies

Participants

Avatar for paulw Avatar for austin_dave Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for marby Avatar for mondfledermaus Avatar for enon Avatar for 59gibson Avatar for mickeyg Avatar for callmeeric Avatar for gr Avatar for ignoreland Avatar for jeffrey Avatar for exspectator Avatar for artmofo Avatar for dnl Avatar for darrtown Avatar for jestrong Avatar for beattycat Avatar for henk Avatar for antisachetdethe Avatar for edhedh Avatar for ljb860 Avatar for Rjab Avatar for Landshark2995

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: