Young boy forgets lunch money and asks school for food; mother shocked to see what staff gave him instead

Maksim VillegasJanuary 13, 2023Last Updated: January 13, 2023

1 minute read

A mother was shocked and appalled to see the sandwich her son received at school after forgetting his lunch money.

The mother, Amy, shared a post on social media saying that her son had left his lunch money at home one day. She says that when he told school staff that he didn’t have his lunch money, he was given a peanut butter sandwich, which he soon discovered was covered in mold.

She shared a photo of the moldy sandwich with her post.

Amy says her son found mold on both the outside and inside of his sandwich. When he informed staff members, he was given a replacement sandwich, but was too afraid to eat it.

“I have no idea how someone could not see this was bad when handing it out,” Amy wrote in her Facebook post.

Amy’s son told his mother that the same thing happened to a friend of his two weeks prior to his incident.

The school released a statement in response to the incident after Amy’s post spread on Facebook.

“We are grateful to be made aware of the situation and have reached out to the parents and apologized,” the school’s statement read. “This is an unacceptable human error and we are looking into it to ensure that this never happens again.”

The story comes following a similar one in which students in another school shared photos on social media showing the shocking meals they were being fed for lunch. Some foods were covered in mold, while others were undercooked or expired.

“You’re giving us something that’s not healthy, that can possibly cause us to die, and it’s just unacceptable,” a student of the high school told news outlets.

Click here to see the photo of the sandwich that the mother, Amy, shared on Facebook.

We are republishing this story to raise awareness about “lunch shaming.” The negative impact of lunch shaming extends beyond the embarrassment and indignities students experience from feeling inferior. A lack of regular nutritious meals can affect students’ physical and mental health.