Lunch lady's bold response to school's rehiring offer after being fired for serving $8 meal to student without money
It’s not easy to put yourself in a dicey situation to assist others. Many might prefer not to do so but it takes another level of courage to step out boldly. Bonnie Kimball, a lunch lady at Mascoma Valley Regional High School in New Hampshire, went out of her way to help a struggling boy by offering him a meal for free temporarily, per CNN. Unfortunately, her goodwill was overlooked by the school and they fired her only to ask her to return a month later. Kimball, however, knew what she had to do. Kimball recalled the student being unable to pay for the $8 meal. She extended her kindness and asked him to have lunch for the time being and pay later.
The lunch lady added that she knew the boy and his parents well and could trust that he would soon pay the money. Ultimately, the boy did pay up, per PEOPLE. However, when the manager of the cafeteria where she was an employee learned of the incident, Kimball was fired. What’s worse, she was told, “Do you understand what you did was wrong? That was theft.” Kimball was handed a termination letter on grounds of violating policies. “On March 28, a District Manager was on-site and witnessed a student coming through the line with multiple food items that you did not charge him for. This is a strict violation of our cash handling procedures, the school's charge policy and federal regulation governing free meals,” the letter read.
After the woman was fired, things got more serious. Two other employees also decided to quit in protest. Things quickly turned around when the authorities discussed again and offered to rehire the woman. “We are going to offer to rehire our recently terminated employee and provide her back pay and we will work with the school district to revise policies and procedures regarding transactions,” the company added. However, when Kimball was approached with the offer, she had a bold response.
The woman turned down the job and revealed the strong reasons she had behind the same. “They did not care about me then. Why would I [help them] now?" she remarked, per Buzzfeed. Kimball also noted that what could have been a simple situation escalated out of hand and hurt her sentiments. Moreover, she believed that she was being rehired as a deliberate effort to ward off the negative attention the management received. “They're only offering my job back to get the press off their backs. They don't want me back because they want me. I'm not bailing them out. No,” she confidently stated, per WMUR. Despite struggling with things, the woman decided not to join back again. "It should have been a natural act of kindness that [anyone] would do," she insisted regarding giving free food to the boy.