Fired lunch lady’s claim questioned

It’s been a whirlwind week in Canaan, N.H., after news of a cafeteria worker being fired for giving a student a free meal garnered national media attention.

Bonnie Kimball claimed that she had lost her job when a supervisor caught her giving food worth $8 to a student whose account had no money. She received an outpouring of support after the story went viral, including a job offer from celebrity chef José Andrés, and the contractor that employed her offered to rehire her.

But now the school district has withdrawn its support for Kimball after the student’s mother shared information with the New Hampshire Union Leader suggesting Kimball lied and engaged in a “cover-up.”

Kimball had served lunch in the cafeteria of Mascoma Valley Regional High for nearly five years, according to the Valley News, when she was fired March 29. The Union Leader reported, based on her account, that the termination came in response to a manager catching her giving one meal to a student who had no money in his lunch account.

After an outpouring of public support for Kimball, the president of the Café Services subsidiary that employed her, Brian Stone, said that the company would offer to rehire her.

But the mother of the student who got the free lunch from Kimball has now told the Union Leader that Kimball has been dishonest. She said that her son, a 17-year-old, was supposed to bring his own lunches.

The woman, whom the Union Leader did not name to protect her privacy, also shared Facebook messages from Kimball to the teenager attempting to cover up her account given to the news media.