Fired Idaho lunch lady offered job back after social media storm

POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) – A southeastern Idaho cafeteria worker said she was sacked for giving a student a free meal costing $1.70, but the school district offered her the job back after a national outcry.

“I have to think about it”, Bowden told The Idaho State Journal. “I’m afraid that they would just make my life miserable and then try to set me up, or get rid of me some other way”.

Dalene Bowden, who described her job as “lunch lady”, was sacked from Irving Middle School in Pocatello after she gave a 12-year-old girl a hot meal when the child said she had no money to pay for it, according to Bowden’s GoFundMe Internet page where she is raising money for a legal fight. “That’s probably why the girl came to me when she didn’t have any money”.

The offer to re-hire Bowden followed a petition on her behalf on Care2 Petitions website that collected more than 85,000 signatures.

The Pocatello/Chubbuck School District released a 615-word statement detailing its role in the community and the importance of nutrition before revealing at the end that Dalene Bowden could return to work. Although the school is not allowed to comment on specific personal matters, they said that the district does not and have never taken negative employee actions against any food service employee due to a singular event of this kind which is presented through the press and various social media sites.

But being fired for feeding a hungry child and offering to pay the cost yourself is just plain ridiculous.

“I got fired for having a heart, please help me fight back”, Bowden wrote on the page, adding that she was a breast cancer survivor. Kids need to eat to be able to concentrate and do well in class. Yes, there are lunch programs for those in need at public schools, but this kid obviously wasn’t on one.

Bowden has worked at the school for three years, and she told KPVI that more than 80 students told her they were hungry this school year alone. Bowden says a supervisor placed her on leave after witnessing what she had done. So Bowden gave the student a free lunch.

‘I love my job. “What do you do when the kid tells you that they’re hungry, and they don’t have any money?”