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.
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, etc., so if you could put like 20 on your account would be great cause they are going to watch us ring you in tomorrow.”
After the student says, “Okay,” Kimball says “we will probably get written up but we can make it look good. Lol.”
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.
Kimball was dishonest and was let go for not following company procedures, Stone said in a statement on May 20. She hadn’t charged the student for any part of the meal but told her manager she did, according to Stone.
“Despite the fact that the student goes through the line frequently according to the employee, this student hadn’t been charged for anything for the previous three months,” Stone said in a video statement posted on YouTube.
Kimball told NBC10 that she was shocked after seeing the Youtube video.
“I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe it.’ There could be backlash out of this that’s gonna be worse for them,” she told NBC10 Boston.
Bonnie Kimball said she was shocked when she saw a official with her former employer call her “dishonest” in an online video. https://t.co/fnoCThyHVs
— NBCWashington (@nbcwashington) May 22, 2019
“I made sure the meal was paid for,” she said. “To me, letting that kid go hungry because he didn’t bring any money that day, that would have been wrong. If the bill did not get paid, damn straight I would have paid it out of my own pocket,” she told the news outlet.
NTD staff contributed to this article.
