The Columbia Public Schools Foundation announced Friday it will contribute $50,000 from its endowment toward efforts to clear the current student meal debt.
The money will benefit the Lunch for Learners fund, which supports families who do not qualify for free or reduced-price lunches but who need additional support due to temporary circumstances, according to a news release from the foundation.
After announcing the donation on the steps of the district’s Aslin Administration Building, foundation Executive Director Katie Harris called for the community to match the contribution.
“We felt like it was the right thing to do to care for students and families in need,” Harris said at the gathering of district officials, foundation members and news media. “These are families who have fallen on emergency circumstances ... and can’t afford to pay their student’s lunch balance.”
The district’s student meal debt sits at $124,613, which is down from $153,917 last year, according to the news release.
Interim Superintendent Chris Belcher said about $20,000 has been raised recently through private donations. That includes at least one of the recent fundraisers at downtown restaurants, district spokesperson Michelle Baumstark said.
As of Friday, the Lunch for Learners fund had almost $26,000 in it. Once the foundation money is added, the fund will have about $76,000 in it, Baumstark said.
The district provides hot meals to students regardless of their ability to pay or their qualifications for free and reduced-price lunch. Meals cost $3.10 for elementary school students and $3.30 for middle and high schoolers. About 42% of district students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, the Missourian has reported.
“I think what you noticed was that the stigma that surrounds having a free meal went away,” Laina Fullum, director of Nutritional Services, said in reference to free lunch programs that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Then after COVID, that’s when the debt started to climb and our participation also started to decline.”
Harris expressed gratitude for those who have donated so far but stressed that consistent contribution was needed to ensure the stability of the Lunch for Learners. Belcher and Fullum established the fund in 2010 with a donation from the Heart of Missouri United Way.
“Hopefully, working together as a community, we can join together and pay that off,” Harris said. “That’s $124,000, so $100,000 (of the combined foundation and community contribution) doesn’t cover all of it.”
Donations to Lunch for Learners can be made through the Nutrition Services website or via a check made out to Columbia Public Schools and mailed to the Nutrition Services Department at 1818 W. Worley St. The foundation is also taking donations, which can be made online or by mail.
