Forget a hot lunch — I got Grape-Nuts in orange juice, and I liked it

A healthy community understands the difference between the spirit of the law and the letter of the law.

Take our recent news stories about what happens to children whose parents don’t pay for their school lunches. Or as I like to call it, LunchTrayGate.

As you probably know by now, children who don’t have money in their lunch account but don’t bring a lunch to school get an alternative lunch. That’s a peanut butter or cheese sandwich, a piece of fruit and a carton of milk.

Growing up, I wouldn’t have called this alternative lunch. I would have called it lunch.

According to this policy, the child gets fed without spending federal dollars on a lunch for somebody whose family can afford it – while the child whose parents can’t afford it should already be on the free lunch program.

Makes sense. But as we know, things involving human beings don’t always go smoothly.

Children would get to the end of the line and be told their food was not paid for. At this point, in front of God and everybody, they would have to trade their chicken nuggets and creamed corn for the dreaded peanut butter sandwich, while the nuggets and corn went straight in the trash.

Sure, there’s the letter of the law: Nobody should get a free lunch who doesn’t qualify for one. After all, you have to be fiscally responsible.

But there’s also the spirit of the law: You don’t want to embarrass kids or waste food in the process. Or do both at the exact same time.

Maybe we should never have gotten to this point, but the right things have happened over the past few weeks.

Citizens have paid off more than $3,000 in delinquent student accounts, with Muscogee County school board member Kia Chambers writing a check for $1,000 after Monday night’s meeting.

Director of School Nutrition Susan Schlader announced at the meeting that the district would no longer take food trays from students or throw away meals, and that the manager would speak to the children in private.

Cathy Williams, along with fellow board members Naomi Bucker, John Thomas and Vanessa Jackson – folks who don’t always agree with each other – suggested having the cafeteria manager speak to the student before he or she gets in line and takes a tray.

There’s a no-brainer, and Schlader agreed. So all’s well that ends well, eh?

But the whole thing has left me a little sad. From kindergarten to 12^th grade, I went off to school with a lunch my mother packed for me, and the experience shaped my life.

When I was in second grade, I came home from school and poured myself a bowl of Grape-Nuts. I couldn’t find any milk, so I tried them with orange juice. Terrible. So I left the bowl on the counter and went out to play.

The next day at school, I opened my lunch box and saw a Thermos. I opened the Thermos and saw – you guessed it – Grape-Nuts floating in orange juice.

I remember thinking, though not in these exact words, something like, “Well-played, Mom.” She was treating me like an adult because she knew I could handle it. I dumped the concoction in the trash and skipped lunch.

When I got home, Mom asked me about my day. I told her it was great and she said she was glad. We never talked about that day’s lunch.

Mom sent me off with thousands more lunches after that, all of them better than the Grape-Nuts.

She wouldn’t have thrown anybody’s lunch in the trash, I can tell you that.

This story was originally published February 24, 2017 at 7:13 PM with the headline "Forget a hot lunch — I got Grape-Nuts in orange juice, and I liked it."