NewsNational

Actions

Mother of student given free food tells newspaper her child is not needy

Posted at 6:41 PM, May 24, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-25 09:17:33-04

The mother of a New Hampshire high school student who received free food from a lunchroom worker told a local newspaper that her son is not a needy child.

Speaking anonymously to the Union Leader earlier this week, the mother said, "I have three children, and they are all well-cared for and well-fed.

"She did not get fired for feeding a hungry child."

Bonnie Kimball was fired from her job with Café Services in April after letting a student at Mascoma Valley Regional High School in Canaan have food without paying for it. She said he told her he didn't have money.

Kimball's former employer said she hadn't been charging the student for anything for several months.

The mother shared Facebook messages from Kimball to her son that show the lunchroom worker asked the student to pay on the account so her manager wouldn't see a problem after the manager watched her give the boy food.

One message from Kimball to the student reads, "So ya wendy got called in the office for us letting you go so wendy told them sometimes you bring cash ect so if you could put like 20 on your account would be great cause they vfb are going to watch us ring you in tomorrow."

After the student says, "Okay," Kimball says "we will probly get written up but we can make it look good. Lol."

In the Facebook messages, Kimball also tells the student she has been fired before telling him that she is, "on world news right now flying to New York to meet some famous football players."

When reached earlier this week, Kimball said: "My lawyer advised me not to speak to anyone." She declined to give the name of her lawyer. CNN tried again Friday to get comment from Kimball.

Kimball was accused of violating the procedures of Café Services as well as federal and school policies, according to a termination letter she provided to CNN. She had worked at Mascoma Valley Regional High School for more than four years, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader .

In a written statement, Brian Stone, president of Café Services school division said the student was in line with a full lunch, as well as oven fries and two packages of cookies. When the student got up to the cashier, Kimball grabbed a Powerade and added it to his tray, he said. She then let the student take the full lunch allowed by school policy and also four additional items, Stone added.

"Not only should she not have allowed the additional a la carte items, but she did not record or charge any of the items, including the main lunch, to the student account so they could be paid in the future," Stone said.