Lunch Lady Uses Own Money to Buy Food for Poor Students, But Ends Up Getting Fired
Out of the kindness of her heart, an elderly lunch lady had been buying and giving food to poor and hungry students at an elementary school in Ohio using her own money.
But when the Wilmington City School District found out, they fired Debbie Solsman from her job in February, Fox News Insider reported.
Solsman had been the beloved lunch lady at Denver Place Elementary School in Wilmington for 14 years.
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When students did not have enough money to pay for their food, Solsman said she would buy them the food they wanted out of her own pocket. If she could not pay for the food that day, she would write herself an IOU so she could pay it off with her next paycheck from the school.
"I sometimes would buy [hungry students] an extra slice of pizza because I did feel them out, ask them what they had for supper the night before. Sometimes they would tell me nothing," Solsman said.
However, when school officials learned about what she was doing, they promptly terminated her for "failure to account for food sales at (her) cashier job in the cafeteria and providing food without payment to (her) grandchildren," Fox 19 reported.
In defense of its action, the school district said students in its schools are provided with a free breakfast daily and they receive three lunch credits if they don't have money to buy a regular meal, according to Faithwire.
If they can't pay off the debt and are in need of a meal, the school will provide them with a free cheese sandwich at lunch instead of a main entree, the district added.
But Solsman said she didn't like to see students getting embarrassed just having to eat cheese sandwiches.
She admitted though that she was at fault. "I broke the rules," she told Fox 19.
However, she told WLWT that she felt "termination was a harsh punishment," Solsman said.
Some parents were outraged at the school district's decision.
"I've got her calling me or them like uh-oh, it's cheese sandwich time. A kid can't get through the day on a cheese sandwich," mother Danielle Davis said.
"Firing her over feeding kids, that's a no go. And our community is going to come together," mom Serenity Mitchell said.
Despite her dismissal, Solsman said she would do the same thing if given another chance because she truly cares for the kids.
"I miss them terribly," she said. "And I love them very much."
A Gofundme page has been started for Solsman.
