A Parent Is Livid After Finding Out Her Daughter Can't Have DoorDash Delivered To Her School For Lunch — But The Teachers Can
Is it really a security risk?
Shutterstock / buryakphoto School lunches don't exactly have a reputation for deliciousness, so historically, kids have relied on their parents to pack them something tasty instead. Times are changing, however, and in an effort to streamline busy mornings, many parents are opting to have their children's lunches delivered right to school.
Unfortunately, change doesn't always come easy, even when it's about something as simple as school lunch. Now, parents and teachers are actively debating the heated topic of whether schools should allow the lunch delivery trend to continue.
A parent is livid after finding out her daughter can't have DoorDash delivered to her school for lunch.
Ex-teacher Laura brought attention to this divisive trend in a video shared on TikTok. Apparently, the debate began when a parent complained that while teachers could use DoorDash to have lunch delivered to them at school, students were not granted the same privilege.
"I called the school board and filed a complaint, they lied to me multiple times. They will get back to me in 1-2 days. If the kids can't DoorDash the teacher don't need to either!" the parent wrote in a screenshot of a text sent to their child.
One person felt that the parent shouldn't care about lunchroom drama, and should instead direct their energy to more crucial issues impacting kids in school. "Parents go hard for anything except what matters in these schools," they shared. "Fussing over cell phones and door dash meanwhile your child isn't reading on grade level, the buildings are falling apart, and they want us to teach that slavery was a happy time. But yes let's talk about DD."
As a former teacher, this argument particularly resonated with Laura.
Some commenters felt that kids DoorDashing food could pose a security risk. "Expecting a school to let a bunch of strangers who haven't been background checked to interact and deliver food to minors on campus is insane," one person wrote. Although the logical response that delivery drivers could easily leave food in the front office eliminating the risk is valid, so is the the follow-up that depending on how many kids are having food delivered, a bottleneck in the front office could ensue.
The conversation also shifted to offering other solutions, but many of them seem impractical.
Some suggested solutions include having designated delivery drop-off points or cafeteria servers assisting in handing out the orders — suggestions that Laura dismissed as impractical due to potential security risks or overburdening school staff.
Source: X
"The cafeteria servers are kind of busy doing their job of serving the food in the cafeteria to the other 400 kids," she said. "Food for which they are legally responsible for the contents."
She also criticized a suggestion about having children meet delivery people at unwatched side doors. "In the era of school shootings and DoorDash felons using their girlfriend's account to deliver food, you want children opening the side doors that nobody watches at their school?" she asked.
In a Washington Post article from 2019, a spokeswoman for a school district in Maryland, Gboyinde Onijala, spoke on how food delivery is affecting schools. "It's a logistical nightmare," Onijala said. "You have dozens of students coming down to the office every day, and they have to be called to pick up their lunch."
Why are kids and parents relying on food delivery more than ever before? Well, partly, it's because it's so easy today to get good food compared to what school cafeterias are serving. But the Washington Post pointed out that the Trump administration rolled back many of the healthy policies Michelle Obama required for school lunches. So, in a day and age where nearly half of all parents are working full-time, ordering food delivery can be a quick and easy way to ensure their child has a healthy lunch.
Ethan Cotler is a writer and frequent contributor to YourTango living in Boston. His writing covers entertainment, news, and human interest stories.