Arby’s Foundation pays off school lunch debt for over 2,600 students in Wichita
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – A restaurant is helping Wichita Public Schools pay for lunches.
The Arby’s Foundation donated $82,210 to USD 259 on Wednesday, cutting down its $190,000 lunch debt.
“You take $82,000 off of that, then that’s only $111,000 or so that the district will have to reimburse us for, which means that they can spend more money on teachers and curriculum and other things that they need to spend money on,” said David Paul, director of Nutrition Services, Wichita Public Schools.
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The debt has accumulated from just 20% of students.
“We have approximately 80% of our students who qualify for free and reduced meals, and all students can eat breakfast at no charge because we operate a universal free breakfast program, so the amount accumulating is just for lunch for a smaller percentage of our students,” said Paul.
That money will pay off the lunch debt racked up by 2,652 students at 96 public schools.
“We serve for the local community here, our guests, and it’s great to know that, ‘Hey, it is a large corporation, but we still get to give back to the communities that we serve,'” said Hamdoon Ismail, Director of Operations for Wichita Market for Arbys.
If you would like to help, the district accepts donations for school lunch debt throughout the year.
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