The lunch lady said, ‘Guess what, you can’t have a lunch.’

[Snarkoleptic]

Child is signed up for free lunch program, goes hungry.
The mean spiritedness of the people and policy behind this is jaw dropping.

[Warpy]

1. Rotten thing to do to any kid

and that little guy is just as cute as a button.

I guess the martinet who wouldn't give him anything either didn't get the memo about the cheese sandwich + fruit and salad (which would have been better than 99% of the cafeteria crap when I was in school) or was having a bad day and acting like a Republican.

Here they dole out the cheese sandwiches and do look into why the account is in arrears. They've caught some poor but proud people that way and gotten kids onto the free lunch program. No kids go hungry, though, even though they miss out on hot food.

[IdaBriggs]

2. We briefly had an issue with my daughter asking for the free cheese

Sandwiches last year because she did not like what we were packing. She was also "buying" lunches if she liked the food better than her packed lunch. I was puzzled when I was contacted about our account being in arrears since we kept a little in it "in case of a parental lunch pack fail." The lunch lady and I figured out what was happening (briefly puzzled if husband was forgetting on his days - he wasn't) but a comparison between her account and her twin brother's quickly cleared that up. I told the lunch lady we weren't choosing to feed only one child/let the other go hungry; she laughed. Apparently my daughter had decided "school cheese" was better than "home cheese?" We got it straightened out; ah, first grade drama!

[Warpy]

3. Too funny!

I'd have taken the cheese sandwich any day over what the lunch ladies called pizza, for instance.

[NaturalHigh]

4. Salisbury steak in the school cafeteria...

was the bane of my existence. Now that I've tasted a real Salisbury steak, I love it.

[Aerows]

5. "Pizza"

vs. my ham and mustard sandwiches or peanut butter sandwiches my mom made - give me the sandwiches any day!

[Warpy]

11. Hockey puck with brown slime?

We never ate that well. Our hockey pucks were in buns and labeled "hamburgers." Mercifully, they were about half the size of the bun. Most kids buried them in every condiment available, trying to moisten them.

[Skittles]

7. your girl knows what she wants

yes INDEED

[stevenleser]

6. It would make me vomit and then cry to have to deny eating lunch to a child.

I would have paid for it myself.

[Snarkoleptic]

9. I know, right? Most people have more change in a car cup holder

than it would cost to pay for a few such lunches.

There is a mean and dumb thread running through our culture and it's doubly sickening when it impacts children.

[Skittles]

8. I cannot imagine saying something like that to a child

under ANY circumstances

[hfojvt]

10. sometimes you run into a lunch nazi

[Spazito]

12. Wow, you find denying a child lunch funny?

[badtoworse]

13. Reminds me of something that happened when I was 12

We had a man named Gus that ran an ice cream truck outside my elementary school. One day there was a little girl (maybe second grade) in front of me on line and she only had 7 cents or so, but the ice cream pops were 15 cents. Gus gave her the ice cream pop for 7 cents. My estimation of him soared and it taught me a lesson about kindness that I still remember 52 years later. Funny how little things can stand out in your memory.

ETA: It goes without saying, I think this lady is a dirtbag.