Hungry and helpless: Lunch lady fired after giving kids free meals

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For many school children, lunch time is a chance to escape the constraints of the classroom by kicking back with a well-prepared meal. But for the children who cannot afford to eat, this time is anything but.

Della Curry, a former Colorado school district kitchen manager, decided to help some of the hungry children in her school by giving them free meals, a good deed that she said got her fired, according to USA Today.

Curry said in a Facebook post that she was fired on May 29 from the Cherry Creek School District for “giving food to children that did not have money.”

The former Dakota Valley Elementary School employee said in one instance, she was approached by a hungry first-grader who was upset because she could not afford lunch.

“I had a first grader in front of me, crying, because she doesn’t have enough money for lunch,” she said in an interview with CBS4. “Yes, I gave her lunch.”

That was not the only time Curry gave out a free meal. She said in an interview with The Denver Post that during her year working at the school, she gave out approximately 20 lunches.

Following backlash on the incident, the district issued a statement that said they provide free meals for students who forget their lunch money and stated no child is allowed to go without lunch.

“We provide hot meals to students the first three times they forget their lunch money and charge their parents’ accounts,” the statement said. “The fourth time, we provide a cheese sandwich and milk.”

The statement also said that the district receives funding to provide children access to the free and reduced lunch program. For children to qualify for the program, a family of four would need a combined income at or below $45,000.

While Curry admitted she broke the policy, she said she wants it to change.

“If me getting fired for it is one way that we can try to change this, I’ll take it in a heartbeat,” Curry said in an interview with CBS4.