Ex-superintendent helps pay students' lunch debt

The High Point Enterprise, N.C.
·1 min read

Jan. 11—GUILFORD COUNTY — A former Guilford County Schools superintendent has made a significant donation to help pay debts owed by low-income students for school lunches.

Sharon Contreras, who left GCS last summer to take a position with an education nonprofit organization in Raleigh, donated $20,000 to the Guilford Educational Alliance in memory of her brother, Detective Erick W. Contreras, a 26- year New York police veteran and a 9/11 first-responder who passed away from cancer in January 2021. GEA sent those funds directly to GCS.

During the pandemic, federal waivers allowed all GCS students to eat free breakfast and lunch, but that program expired last summer.

Currently, more than 5,700 Guilford County students have meal debt totaling more than $111,000.