School lunch lady fired for giving free meal to hungry kid is offered job back

SHE was fired for giving away a $2.35 lunch meal to a hungry school kid. Now, after a massive outcry, she has her job back.

AN AMERICAN school cafeteria worker who said she was fired for giving a student a free meal costing $2.35 (US$1.70) has her the job back after a national outcry.

Dalene Bowden, from Idaho, received a termination letter from the Pocatello School District last week after she gave a tray of food to a 12-year-old student who said she didn’t have money for the meal.

The letter cited theft as the reason for her dismissal. Ms Bowden, who worked at Irving Middle School in Pocatello in the south east of the state, said a supervisor placed her on leave after witnessing what she had done.

“I truly loved my job, and I can’t say that I wouldn’t do it again,” Ms Bowden told news station KPVI-TV in Pocatello.

However, the district said in a statement on Wednesday night that it doesn’t fire workers for single events and offered Ms Bowden her job back in the spirit of the holidays. It’s not clear if she will return.

The district also said it works with various programs to help children who are hungry, need medical care or who are homeless.

It noted that the school could lose federal money if accounting irregularities showed up with missing meals.

“The District jeopardises its funding for the Federal Food Service Program if its employees do not follow the proper procedures and requirements,” the statement said.

Superintendent Doug Howell had been in contact with Ms Bowden and offered her the chance to return to work, the district’s statement said.

Meanwhile, the city of Pocatello has received so many messages of outrage that it released a statement on Wednesday noting that the city and school district are separate entities and no elected officials were involved in the district’s decisions about Bowden.

“Mayor [Brian] Blad and the City feel this is an extremely unfortunate situation,” the statement said.