Boy has ‘worst birthday ever’ after hot lunch is taken away because of outstanding balance

GREEN, Ohio - A 9-year-old boy said he had “the worst birthday ever” when his lunch was taken away because he had an outstanding balance at an Ohio school.

Jefferson Sharpnack, 9, and his two brothers went to live with their grandmother, Diane Bailey, in Green, Ohio, in early August, according to News 5 Cleveland.

Bailey told the station that she enrolled the boys in the free and reduced lunch program for school. She said school officials told her she could write a check for the boys’ lunches until the registration paperwork was complete.

On Aug. 30, Jefferson came home with a note showing an outstanding balance of $9. Bailey said she called the school to straighten things out and assumed Jefferson’s lunches would be fine from then on.

But on his birthday on Sept. 3, he came home and told his grandmother that his hot lunch was taken away and replaced with a piece of cheese on bread from the school refrigerator. He told her it was “the worst birthday ever,” according to News 5 Cleveland.

Bailey believes there must have been a misunderstanding with the school over her payment.

Green Local Schools provided the local station with a statement, noting that officials were in the process of investigating the situation.

This story was reported from Los Angeles.