Dalene Bowden was fired as a school lunch lady because she gave a student a free meal

A SCHOOL lunch lady thought she was doing the right thing. Instead, she paid for her actions with her job. And all it cost was $1.70.

DALENE Bowden thought she was doing the right thing when a hungry student told her they couldn’t afford lunch.

So the cafeteria worker at a US intermediate school gave the 12-year-old a free lunch, but the consequences were not what she was expecting.

Ms Bowden was fired from Irving Middle School, in Idaho, for her actions, the New York Post reports. The cost of the hot lunch was only $1.70.

The Pocatello/Chubbuck School District reportedly placed Bowden on leave on December 15 before deciding to fire her.

She said she offered to pay for the lunch herself, but her supervisor said no.

“This just breaks my heart, and I was in the wrong, but what do you do when the kid tells you that they’re hungry, and they don’t have any money? I handed her the tray,” Ms Bowden told the Idaho State Journal.

The district fired her for theft and for making inaccurate transactions. Interim Superintendent Douglas Howell, from the school authority, called it a personnel matter and refused to comment further.

Dalene Bowden’s dismissal letter. Picture: Facebook

Bowden has worked for the school district for the past three years and said she’s never had a written warning or been reprimanded for her job performance. But she said she did receive a verbal warning once for giving a student a free cookie.

She plans to seek legal counsel regarding the termination letter accusing her of theft.

“I broke the rules, but I offered to pay for the meal and I don’t think I deserved to lose my job over it,” Ms Bowden told the Journal.

She posted the dismissal letter to Facebook, saying the school hadn’t even included her final pay with it.

Since news of her sacking tens of thousands of people rushed to her defence. A petition supporting Bowden racked up more than 38,000 online signatures as of late yesterday.

“Lunch room policies should prioritise kindness and making sure kids receive a nutritious lunch so they can be ready to learn,” supporter Raushelle Guzman wrote in the petition, calling for the school district to let Ms Bowden return to work.

Students are allowed to charge up to $11.00, but workers can still give them some food if they exceed that limit, the Journal reports.

Originally published as Dalene Bowden was fired as a school lunch lady because she gave a student a free meal