School Kitchen Manager Fired After Giving Free Lunches To Hungry Kids

AURORA, CO – Former kitchen manager Della Curry lost her job after it was found that she was giving free lunches away to hungry children. The Dakota Valley Elementary School in Aurora Colorado let her go last Friday when it was discovered that she was giving lunches to children who didn’t have money to pay.

“I had a first grader in front of me, crying, because she doesn’t have enough money for lunch. Yes, I gave her lunch,” Curry said in an interview with CBS Denver station KCNC-TV.

To qualify for the free lunch program, a family of four needs to have an annual income that does not exceed $31,000. Families who bring in $45,000 can qualify for the school’s discounted lunch program.

Curry frequently would pay for some students’ lunches out of her own pocket, as the policy of the Cherry Creek School District is that if a child cannot qualify for free or reduced price lunches then they receive a slice of cheese on a hamburger bun and a small milk. “I’ll own that I broke the law. The law needs to change,” she said. “I will never understand how the “best” country in the world considers a cheese sandwich to be adequate nutrition for a child. I will never understand how one of the richest countries in the world cannot provide lunch for its children.”

Parents of the children helped by Curry are speaking out in her defense. “Do something different than fire her,” father Darnell Hill said. “She’s trying to help.”

The school district released the following statement in response to the story from CBS:

The law does not require the school district to provide the meal to children who have forgotten their lunch money, that is a district decision. According to our practice, we provide hot meals to students the first three times they forget their lunch money and charge their parents’ accounts. The fourth time, we provide a cheese sandwich and milk.

The district has worked to keep lunch prices low and still meet the federal nutrition requirements. The costs of our lunch program are not covered by the prices we charge. At the end of the year, any unpaid accounts revert back to the general fund which also covers instruction, security, building maintenance and overall operations.