“Hunger knows no party affiliation. We are excited to once again partner with our school districts to eliminate a need so easy to solve,” said Heather Tiefenthaler, chair of the Champaign County Democrats. “I thank all our members who have generously donated to create this gift to our community of students.”
This combined total was considerably less than in 2022, when the group also paid off the lunch debt for the five county schools.
Graham’s policy allows students to charge three meals or have charges totaling $8 for elementary students and $9 for middle/high school students before they are given a basic alternative meal, which consists of a cheese or peanut butter sandwich, fruit and milk, said Superintendent Chad Lensman.
“It becomes challenging when students remain in a negative balance while continued efforts to address the negative balances go unaddressed,” Lensman said. “As many requirements have changed, we encourage all families to complete the free/reduced meal application process, (which) is confidential and can be completed online.”
Triad allows up to $20 in charges before students receive a different lunch.
Although Champaign County school lunch debts have been covered, a few Clark County districts still have families with outstanding debt, including Clark-Shawnee with $535.39 and Northeastern with $2,083.48.
At Clark-Shawnee, they do offer free breakfast to students, which Superintendent Brian Kuhn said has increased participation in the school nutrition program and has “seen first-hand the positive impacts the free breakfast has on students in the classroom environment.”
At Southeastern, they don’t have a certain number of charge-able lunches or a no-lunch policy, but they have talked about it as a staff because there are families that carry lunch debt.
“We struggle with the concept of telling a student they can’t eat, so that’s the balance between having a cut-off and wanting to keep your lunch debt under control,” said Superintendent David Shea.
Some districts do get anonymous donations from time to time, help from local churches, or neighbors or extended family who put money in specific student accounts, including at Greenon, Clark-Shawnee and Northeastern.
“We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of our community members, including local churches and anonymous donors, who have stepped up in past years to help cover student lunch balances. Their support has made a meaningful difference in the lives of our students and families,” said Northeastern Superintendent Jack Fisher.
The Springfield City School District has been a part of the Community Eligibility Program (CEP) for several years. The program allows all students in generally lower-income areas to get no-cost breakfast and lunches, regardless of the individual family’s income.
Starting the 2024-25 school year, Tecumseh Local Schools also qualified for this program to allow free breakfast and lunch for all students. Since the start of the school year through Thanksgiving, Superintendent Paula Crew said the Child Nutrition Department served an additional 22,302 breakfasts and 29,145 lunches compared to that same time last year.
“We are delighted that our students are partaking in this opportunity ... Research is clear that students who have proper nutrition are in a better position to be actively engaged in learning,” Crew said. “As a result of the CEP program, we have nominal student debt, as students no longer need to charge for a breakfast or lunch if they do not have money on a particular day.”
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