Deb sounds like she was out of line, but here's the thing, 20 minutes after your shift is a gray area if you clocked out and left. The back pay you got was $740, which is real money, but the labor board doesn't always side with the worker like that. Kroger probably settled just to make it go away, not because you were right. And telling coworkers to file claims sounds good until they get blacklisted in a small town like Dayton where everybody knows everybody.

Is it really worth arguing about though?

Left my starter in the fridge for a week once during a move and it came back fine after a couple feedings, smells like nail polish remover at first but that goes away. The bread from a stressed starter does taste off though, kind of sour in a bad way like it fermented too fast. Give it a few normal feedings before baking again and it should go back to normal.