Hailey Fisher pays off school lunch debt
School Lunch Debt in America Is a Major Issue – SheKnows
Today, millions of kids still face an unfair, classist burden on their school year: the issue of school lunch debt. A study by the School Nutrition Association showed 75 percent of school districts reporting unpaid student meal debt – and the impact on these students and their families is far-reaching. Just this week, a Philadelphia businessman’s offer to pay off local schoolkids’ lunch debt was rejected. Back in July, 40 families in Pennsylvania received a letter from the director of their school district’s federal programs that threatened parents who can’t afford to send their kids to school with a meal. A Rhode Island school district gave cold meals to students with lunch debt until Chobani stepped in with a donation.
In Minnesota, a number of schools attempted to bar teens from graduation ceremonies because they had lunch debt. A number of heartwarming stories have gone viral – many about young kids who either donated their allowance or raised money to help their classmates pay for food. In July, NBC reported that under the Trump administration’s proposed overhaul of the food stamp system, over 500,000 children would no longer be automatically eligible for free lunch. As things currently stand, school lunch debt is taking a toll on the millions of kids who are affected. Dr.
Powell suggests creating a fund that allows community members to donate anonymously to help clear school debt. Donations can also be made to organizations like School Lunch Fairy, an organization that allows you to either donate to a fund that helps any district in need or specify the district you’d like to donate to. WE DID IT!!!!!! We came together as a community and raised all the money we needed to pay off the debt of the 2019 Graduating Class of seniors in our entire county!! We are SO thankful to everyone who contributed this far – But we are not done yet!
We are moving on to the debt of the 2020 graduating class.
Challenge aims to wipe out school lunch debt
MANISTEE – School breakfast and lunch programs are vital to the success of all students in the classroom. Manistee County is part of a growing group of school systems around the state where the free and reduced lunch program numbers exceed 50 percent of their students and in one district 60 percent. In Manistee County the current lunch debt for all the schools combined is in excess of $11,000. It is the reason the Little River Casino Resort has started up the Clear Manistee County School Lunch Debt Challenge to area businesses and individuals. LRCR’s Samantha Nelson said after learning of the debt they wanted to do something to help and felt the challenge would be a fun and helpful way to do it.
Nelson said once they contacted all the schools to see how big their debts were, they knew this was something they wanted to do to help out. Nelson said the challenge is open to any business and they came up with a format that will give big and small businesses a good opportunity to win the prize package they are offering as incentive. How it works is between Sept. 12 and Sept. 26 a businesses employees will see how much money they can raise either through donations or fundraisers like bake sales, pop can drives, collection jars, etc. The company that raises the most money per employee in their business will be awarded with a prize package from the Little River Casino Resort. For example if a business raises $100 and has 20 employees they will be credited with a total donation of $5 per employee.
Nelson said the prize is good regardless of how large the business is. Nelson said that if any individual wants to aid this worthy cause, they can do so on their own as well.
Lunch Debt Policy In NJ Grabs Attention Of 2020 Hopefuls
The Cherry Hill school district first stirred up controversy over the summer when they suggested that students with more than $20 in debt would be fed tuna fish sandwiches. According to NBC News, that plan was later revised to include banning students who owe money from school activities. The latest iteration of the proposal means high school students with a $75 unpaid tab would be forced to forgo prom. School board members in the district located just outside Philadelphia, have left it up to the principal’s of each school to enforce the policy. Prom is at stake for high school seniors, but students in lower grades could be forced out of extra-curricular activities, class trips and other school dances until the lunch debt is paid.
One board member told NBC that he is concerned about how the policy will affect a student’s ability to get into college. Presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Cory Booker, who hails from New Jersey, have also made their concerns over the lunch debt policy public. News of the policy also prompted Booker to weigh in on what he would do about the issue if he became the country’s next President. Unpaid lunch balances are an issue in 75 percent of America’s school districts, according to a 2019 Shool Nutrition Trends Report, prepared by the School Nutrition Association. A charity in honor of Philando Castile, who was murdered by Minnesota police during a traffic stop in 2016, agreed to pay off the remaining balances of every student at all 56 schools in Minnesota’s St.
Paul Public Schools, where Castile worked. Local businesses offered to pay off the balances in Cherry Hill, but school officials have declined the offer.