School Lunch Lady Becomes The 'Bad Guy' After Federal Cuts

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 04/08/2025) The food services director at a Burton-area school district told the state Board of Education Tuesday that federal cuts to a food assistance program at schools is turning her into the “bad guy" with her students.

Bendle Public Schools Food Service Director Dawn PULLY said more than 88 percent of her district is low-income, and she was told by parents of students that they would need to choose between paying bills or buying school lunch.

“I don’t even want to think about telling our students that they have to pay, or they can’t eat because they owe money and free meals go away. It makes the favorite lunch lady the bad guy,” Pully said.

Pully's comments come as the Board of Education members heard a presentation about the impacts of the Department of Agriculture cuts and the moving of COVID-19 funding deadlines.

Michigan Department of Education Diane GOLZYNSKI told the board that the federal government cut nearly $30 million, which not only left kids without food, but left Michigan farmers without a revenue source for their goods. She said 118 truckloads of food were canceled from The Emergency Food Assistance Program.

“One hundred and eighteen semi-truck loads of food is a lot of food. It represents approximately 25 percent of the food brought into the state of Michigan through this particular program,” Golzynski said.

The MDE reported the current funding proposal would reduce the free meals to those who are extremely poor and would end the summer school food programs.

There would be a 100 percent documentation requirement to verify family income that would need to be done by local school districts.

Two local school lunch directors testified before the board on what the loss of funding would mean for their students.

“Families will be overwhelmed, confused, or even discouraged from applying at all. That means more kids showing up hungry, not because there’s no food available, but because paperwork got in the way,” said Brighton Area Schools Director of Student Nutrition RichardBROWDER.

Republican Board member Tom McMILLIN said if feeding children was so important that funding could be found somewhere and said there were 53,000 nonprofits and 10,000 religious organizations in Michigan. He said the state could easily make up the $30 million lost by the federal government in the $83 billion budget.

“Over $200 million just in corporate welfare that’s going to be spent. I would imagine that instead of giving it to big corporations, that money could easily be found,” McMillin said.

Board member Tiffany TILLEY said there wasn’t time to find alternate sources because of the speed at which the funding was cut.

“I just want to say this is an absolute travesty,” Tilley said.

State Superintendent Michael RICE said the entire process, including the cuts to the COVID-19 funding, were about money that was already in the process of being spent. He said it was put in place by the previous administration and should be honored.

The Board passed a resolution that called on the U.S. Department of Education to honor the more than $40 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding that was set to be reimbursed to 12 schools replacing their Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning systems.

McMillin was the sole no vote after Republican Nikki SNYDER left the board meeting early.

He said if the schools truly need it, they should just fire a couple of administrators.

“If it was that important, I think they would have made sure that it got done well prior to this year or next year,” McMillin said.

The funding is reimbursement that cannot be paid until the project is completed, which leaves the bill for the expensive HVAC systems in the lap of the districts who were promised the funding.

Rice equated it to hiring a contractor to put a new roof on your house.

“You ink a contract today, three weeks laker the roof is put on. A few days later, you pay the roof. The obligation is made by signing the contract, and the liquidation of payment is after the services are ready,” he said.

Rice said the resolution was most likely not the last the federal government would hear from the State Board of Education.

“Certainly, the last word has not been heard on these funds,” Rice said.