WASHINGTON — A Colorado kitchen manager is out of work after giving free lunches to students in need.
According to CBS News, Della Curry worked at Dakota Valley Elementary School in Aurora. She lost her job last week after allegedly giving school lunches to students who didn’t have money.
“I had a first grader in front of me, crying, because she doesn’t have enough money for lunch,” Curry, a mother of two, told a CBS Denver station. “Yes, I gave her lunch.”
In the Cherry Creek School District, CBS reports, students who don’t qualify for free or reduced lunch get a small milk and one slice of cheese on a hamburger bun. That simply isn’t enough food, Curry contends.
In a statement, the Cherry Creek School District says the law does not require the system to provide meals to children who have forgotten their lunch money.
“We provide hot meals to students the first three times they forget their lunch money and charge their parents’ accounts,” according to the statement. “The fourth time, we provide a cheese sandwich and milk.”
“I’ll own that I broke the law,” Curry said, according to the CBS report. “The law needs to change. If me getting fired for it is one way that we can try to change this, I’ll take it in a heartbeat.”
Watch the CBS interview below.
