All school lunch debts paid off at local district
FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio (WJW) — Just about everything tastes better with a little gravy on top.
The chicken mashed potato bowl being served up in Fairview Park schools is a big hit.
But every lunch, every snack and every carton of milk has a price. And for some families, it can be hard to pay that price every day.
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“Even when you’re working and you’re working hard and now you’re taking care of everything by yourself and didn’t expect to be there and you went from someone who could help to someone who needed help,” said a Fairview mother, who asked not to be identified.
She tragically lost her husband last year and it cut her family income by more than half. So her children, like many others throughout the district, ran up a tab for lunch.
Fairview Park schools will not let a child go hungry, but a unpaid lunch tab can delay graduation and other activities.
But with just a few days left in the school year, all lunch debts district-wide are now paid in full.
The giant check for more than $11,400 came from the National Food Group, which is based near Detroit. For the past few years, the company has given grants to districts nationwide to pay off lunch debt.
“We read hundreds of applications from all across the country and all of their stories are important and all of their stories are heart wrenching,” the group’s Corporate Social Responsibility Director Samantha Bourque said. “So it’s just a matter of finding those special schools, those lunch rooms, those staffs that really want to help the families in their community.”
And for the school district, this means a lot. About 28% of the children here qualify for free or reduced cost lunches.
But even many of the families who don’t qualify are still dealing with higher costs. The district said this grant will go a long way to help local families.
“I feel it. I feel it for the families. I’m the one who does the applications. I know their stories and to be able to help them is just a blessing,” Fairview Park Food Services Director Diana Hill said.
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But the greatest gift here is the fact that even though things are hard for a lot of folks, this is now one less thing that they have to worry about. It’s breathing space for families that may owe hundreds or even thousands of dollars in lunch fees.
Every little bit can help in a big way — just like a little gravy makes everything better.
“She told me and I just started crying. She told me, ‘Happy Mother’s Day,’ and it’s probably one of the biggest Mother’s Day gifts I’ve been given. It was joyous. It’s a blessing,” one mother said.
Two other school districts in Oregon and Arkansas also saw their lunch debt paid off by the grants.
In addition, each district will receive $5,000 in credits for Zee Zees snacks.
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