Student Lunch Debt is a national issue, and today we decided to see if we can make a difference in such a difficult issue right here in our backyard.
Student lunch debt ranges nationally from single digits to some school districts getting $800,000 in lunch debt, and on top of that, over 60% of schools have some sort of "lunch-shaming", meaning giving students on free or reduced lunch a "lesser lunch", showcasing to other students that their families may be in financial strain.
Lakeview Elementary has such an incredible nutrition program where they have taken a stance to give every kid a full, hot lunch. Even if a child comes in hungry, that student gets a hot lunch. We wanted to support that, and as a part of #CitiesGivesBack, we wanted to eliminate their student lunch debt.
Not only did the listeners of Cities97.1 get this done, but they got it done in less than THREE hours. We cannot thank you all enough for making this happen, and for making the lives of our local children and their families a little better.