Lunch at an elementary school in Alexandria, Virginia. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP

Lunch lady refuses to be rehired after got fired for giving free meal to a student

Bonnie Kimball, a school cafeteria worker in New Hampshire who was fired for giving a student lunch for free, rejected an offer to be rehired. Kimball was fired on 28 March by Fresh Picks, a vendor that supplies food to the Mascoma Valley regional high school in Canaan.

According to Kimball, on that day the student’s account showed no funds, so she quietly told him “Tell mom you need money”, and provided him a lunch. Kimball knew that the student’s family is very well known in the town and she can guarantee that if she called his mother, the mother would have come right in and paid the bill. However, Kimball didn’t want to interrupt the student’s mother work so she decided to give the student a free lunch and paid the bill on the next day.

The company had offered to rehire the employee, provide back pay and to work with the school to revise the policies regarding transactions. However, Kimball had no intention of returning and accused the company of only giving the offer to rehire her “so that it could keep its contract”.

Since then, many workers quit in protest. Parents at school said they were upset by Kimball’s departure and demanded her to be rehired. Some of the parents even started a GoFundMe campaign and raised $5,000 for Kimball. Furthermore, Kimball got many supports from US Navy Seal and a professional football player on her Facebook page.