The Lunch Lady

March is spring break season here in Florida.  Not just for college students who come from all over the nation to soak up the daytime sun and then party all night, but also for younger kids, their teachers and members of school staffs.  This past weekend we had a visit from a friend of ours who was on break from her job in a high school cafeteria.  She makes a very modest wage, and augments her earnings with a housecleaning job or two.  She's a pretty frugal soul, but still lives largely from paycheck to paycheck.

Our friend is the sort of school worker who makes the day a bit better for kids.  She has a warm smile, and a kind word for the students who pass through her lunch line.  They affectionately call her "Lunch Lady."

Earlier in the school year Lunch Lady began to notice that one girl, we'll call her Crystal, never bought lunch.  She also never brought a sack lunch.  Her friends would sometimes give her a tidbit from their own trays and brown paper bags, but she never had her own meal.  So one lunch period, Lunch Lady made discreet inquiry and asked Crystal why she never had a lunch.  "My Mom can't afford it," Crystal told her.  "Have you looked into any programs," asked Lunch Lady, referring to the school's offerings of free or reduced-price lunches.  It turned out she hadn't--she wasn't sure what she needed to do.  So Lunch Lady helped her do the necessary paper work.  Crystal was approved for the program.

A few days later, Lunch Lady noticed Crystal was still going without lunch.  "Hey Crystal," she said, "I thought you were approved for reduced lunch."  "I was," said Crystal, "but it's still too expensive--my Mom can't afford the forty cents a day."  Well that was more than Lunch Lady could abide.  She knew what it meant to be a single mom--she is one.  She knows what it means to scrap by--she has often done just that. And right then and there she made a decision.  Crystal needed lunch.  And she was going to make it happen.  So every day for months now, Lunch Lady has dug into her own pocket and coughed up forty cents for Crystal.  Forty cents that means the difference between a kid eating or not.

I'm proud to have Lunch Lady as a friend.  Would that more of us were willing to reach out even as she has.  But I'm also distressed.  Because I know there are thousands of other Crystals all across this land.  Crystals who've never had the fortune of meeting up with somebody like Lunch Lady.  For all our programs like reduced price lunches and food stamps, there are still hungry kids in America.  And that is unacceptable.