Thanks to a gift from The Summit Church, lunch debt in LS School District is now zero

The Lee’s Summit School District got $18,950 in its stocking just days before the winter break, enough to cover the current outstanding lunch debt of the whole school system. Parishioners of The Summit Church donated the cash over one weekend in December.

The church has been working with Lee’s Summit Elementary School for about 15 years, providing toiletries, holiday gifts and other items to families in need.

Executive pastor Ryan Schreckenghaust had asked the district how much the school’s lunch debt was.

“When we heard about how much it was, it was a spark, and we said, ‘Well, we could do that but also every other school,’” Schreckenghaust said.

He inquired further about the total lunch debt for the district.

“My initial reaction was, ‘That’s more than I was thinking, and we might have bitten off more than we can chew.’ When I shared that number with our church, they didn’t flinch. They said, ‘Let’s do this,’ and they made it happen,” he said.

About 2,000 people regularly worship at the church each weekend, and with their contributions, the church raised the entire amount the weekend of Dec. 14.

“For us, ultimately, it’s just about treating our neighbors the way we would want to be treated,” Schreckenghaust said.

The church’s generosity floored Lori Danella, the district’s nutrition director.

“I actually sat in my chair and just cried, because that means so much,” she said. “I think people don’t understand that even though Lee’s Summit is a suburban community, we have people who struggle. Families who have three or four children, even if they qualify for free or reduced lunches, at 30 to 40 cents a lunch, they struggle paying that.”

About 21% of children in the school district receive free or reduced cost lunches.

“It’s just hard, and it’s sad, because you can have a family that was doing very well, and one of the parents lose their jobs, and they have a house payment and a car payment, and that’s one of the things you don’t worry about is school meals. But the kids have to eat every day,” Danella said.

Some families are too embarrassed to apply for free or reduced lunches, even though they need them. Danella has been keeping a close eye this year on who is accruing lunch debt.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education allows school principals or counselors to apply for a full year of free or reduced lunches for a family on their behalf if they know there’s a financial hardship. Danella uses her information to connect with principals to make that happen for anyone who needs it.

Because of that, the $18,950 the church paid off is actually about $6,000 lower than it would typically be this time of year.

“When General Motors was on strike, those people were without their paychecks for a while,” and the department of education allowed those families to temporarily receive free lunch during the strike and for a month after it ended,” Danella said.

The school district will not deny school lunches to any child, but when the debt accrues, building principals have to dip into their schools’ budgets for student activities and use that money to pay off the debt.

“Everybody knows all school districts usually have negative lunch balances; that’s just a fact of lif,” Danella said. “Up until about two years ago, we really didn’t have any help (with lunch debt), but then people started thinking about that.”

In Lee’s Summit, the church isn’t the only community partner helping with lunch debt. Danella said that a man who won’t give his name to the district stops by every few weeks to give money toward school lunch debt. So far this year, he’s given $1,700. Other families and businesses have donated smaller amounts.

The Summit Church also helps by giving out free lunches to children during the summer when school is not in session. Their next focus in helping the community will be helping erase medical debt, Schreckenghaust said.

This story was originally published December 31, 2019 at 12:00 AM.