Imagine you’re back in school, counting down the minutes until lunch when your hunger can be taken care of. Finally the bell rings and you head to the cafeteria excited to get a satisfying, hot lunch and to have your hunger relieved.

But wait — your mom forgot to give you lunch money. Or maybe she couldn’t afford to give you lunch money because she doesn’t get paid until next week. So you head to school knowing that at least you can charge your lunch to your account. However, you’ve already charged your lunch for the past three days. So what is a hungry kid to do? Never fear, your school district has got your back! In lieu of starving they offer you a cheese sandwich and a carton of milk. And by cheese sandwich, I mean a slice of unmelted cheese in between two buns.

Delicious. (Not.)

This is the case in the Cherry Creek school district in Aurora, Colorado. It is policy to charge student lunch accounts three times, which would total a debt of $7.60. The fourth time a child’s lunch account is charged they cannot receive a hot lunch. Instead, they are given a cheese sandwich and a carton of milk. Sounds very nutritious right?

When Della Curry, a kitchen manager at Dakota Valley Elementary School in Aurora got fired, it was for giving out hot lunches to students without money for them.

“It is policy to never give out free food,” Curry told The Denver Post Tuesday. “That is all fine and dandy until you have little kids not on the free and reduced program and their account goes negative.”

According to the policy, she was supposed to take away the child’s lunch and throw it in the garbage. And of then of course provide them with the nutritious and fulfilling cheese sandwich (I say this with copious amounts of sarcasm). Disgusting and pathetic.

But kudos to Della Curry for taking a stand against this ludicrous practice. Throwing away food? Embarrassing little kids? Really, Cherry Creek School District? Shame on you.

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