Why were some children offered only fruit and milk for lunch?

Dozens of children at a Utah elementary school had their lunch trays snatched away from them before they could take a bite this week. Salt Lake City School District officials say(21-1)the trays were taken away at Utah Elementary School Tuesday because some students had negative balances in their accounts used to pay for lunches. But they admit the situation should have been handled differently.(21-2)Instead of regular lunches, the students were given fruit and milk. " We don’t ever let kids go without any food entirely," said Salt Lake City School District spokesman Jason Olsen.(22)One mother said she was "blindsided" when her daughter described what a school district official told her: "You don’t have any money in your account, so you can’t get lunch. " "There were a lot of tears," she said, " and it was pretty upsetting for them. " The district said it started notifying parents about negative account balances Monday. But the mother said she and other parents were never told about the problem.