New Hampshire lunch lady Bonnie Kimball taught us some important lessons when she extended credit to a hungry student who didn’t have money to pay for the meal   (Photo credit: people.com).

A national discussion revolving around meeting the needs of a hungry student was triggered this weekend when news stations reported a New Hampshire lunch room lady was fired because she gave food to a student who didn’t have money to pay. The lunch lady involved, Bonnie Kimball, worked for a food service company contracted by the school district to prepare lunches for students at Mascoma Valley Regional High School in Canaan. It was also reported that the next day, the mother  of the student involved reimbursed the food service company for the $8 meal.

The incident brought to the surface a memory from my childhood. When I was a fifth grader, my mother, who headed a single parent household, worked the dinner shift as a waitress. She paid her bills primarily with her tips, which in those days consisted of nickels, dimes, and quarters. She worked the dinner shift because she could earn about $20 per week more, and that was a great deal in those days. Because I was asleep by the time she came home from work, she typically left my lunch money for the next day on top of the television. It was my responsibility to get myself up and dressed in the morning, and pick up the lunch money before leaving for school.

One day, as is typical of young children, in my rush to get out the door on time I forgot to scoop up the coins. At lunch time later that day, my teacher noticed I wasn’t eating, and she asked me why. When I told her I forgot my lunch money, my compassionate teacher lent me 35 cents, the cost of a student lunch in those times, and she asked me to pay her back the next day.

That evening, before she went to work, I confessed to my mother what had happened. As she handed me the coins I needed to repay my teacher, she said, “Don’t borrow money from your teacher again. If you forget your money, you don’t eat lunch. It won’t hurt you to miss one meal, and if that happens you won’t be likely to forget your money again.”

Over the years that have passed since then, there has been a difference of opinion among those who have heard this story. Opinions are divided about who was in the right:  My mother, who was attempting to teach me a valuable lesson about responsibility, or the teacher, who was modeling compassion by helping a hungry child to eat. Personally, I think they were both in the right, and I am happy to report that I learned both lessons indelibly.

In the case of the New Hampshire lunch lady, Americans have overwhelmingly sided with the kindhearted Bonnie Kimball. To stem the flood of negative press, the food service company for which she worked has offered to rehire her and give her back pay for the work days she missed. She has declined the offer because, she says, that the company doesn’t really care about the welfare of her or the students, they only want to save face.

So, what is the life lesson we can all learn from Bonnie Kimball’s experience? I think one of the lessons is this: In a world where parents expect public school employees to act “in loco parentis,” no one who works with students should get in trouble for making sure a kid gets fed. I don’t blame the lunch lady for refusing to go back to work for a company that doesn’t support this core value. But in addition, I think this episode helps us all to become keenly aware that America is still a country where people like Bonnie Kimball treat others with compassion and kindness, and that’s a good thing to know about us. Thank you for that, Bonnie!