Monday, February 24, 2014
Gov. Mark Dayton steps in to School lunch debate
By: Blayr T.
Governor Dayton commits to including $3.5 million in his supplemental budget proposal to ensure that no Minnesota student is denied access to a hot meal at lunchtime. Legislative leaders, who return to session at the end of the month, have similarly vowed to make lunch funding a priority.
As of today more than half of the school districts in Minnesota deny hot lunch, or any lunch at all, to students with no money in their lunch account. On top of this a report done by Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid that found schools throwing lunches in the trash, feeding students alternative lunches of cold cheese or butter sandwiches, or sending them home with “LUNCH” or “MONEY” reminders stamped on the backs of their hands.
After hearing this shocking information Dayton states that “No child in Minnesota should be denied a healthy lunch.” He further continues saying “we cannot expect our students to succeed on an empty stomach. I look forward to working with the Legislature to make this issue a priority in the upcoming legislative session.” In return, legislative leaders who return at the end of the month have similarly vowed to make lunch funding a priority.
Other schools react to this statement defending the ways that their schools work, and how what they are doing is simply being misinterpreted. Take Osseo for example, the largest of the 46 districts that immediately or eventually cut off lunches to students with deficits in their lunch accounts.
District spokeswoman Barb Olson says that when a child’s account balance goes in the red, the school provides an alternate lunch, consisting of a sandwich, fruit and milk for at least the next three days. “We want to reassure people we do not deny children lunch,” said Olson, who could not explain why students were given an alternative to a hot lunch. “We aim to keep courtesy meals to three. When students exceed those numbers, we engage in problems solving.”
Dayton is not the only one appalled by the mistreatment of the children, at the legislator amendment sponsor Rep. Joe McDonald, R-Delano puts a statement out saying that “It disappoints me that House Democrats chose special interests and partisan politics over children,” “I offered an amendment last year on the House floor that would have provided funding to ensure low-income children are not turned away from the lunch table for lack of payment. My amendment would have utilized funding from more bureaucracy — including a new climate center — to help ensure our students don’t go without a school lunch. Unfortunately, Democrats stood on the side of spending more taxpayer dollars in a government agency instead of taking the opportunity to support our children.”
House Speaker Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, said funding school lunches will be “a very big priority. We’re going to include it in our budget.” Of students being denied lunch by their school, he said, “It just seems wrong.” In a follow up with the words of Mark Dayton, “if a child can’t afford a hot school lunch, the state of Minnesota should pick up the tab.”
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