EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — A group of local moms was stunned to learn how many lunches were left unpaid in their school district every year.
So they decided to do something about it.
Trish Oberweis has one child in Edwardsville District 7, and read about school lunch debt in other places. She decided to call her superintendent and ask about the local numbers.
“Thinking I was going to get a number in the low hundreds, maybe at the highest approaching a thousand dollars,” Oberweis said. “And her answer shocked me. It was $5,000 per quarter, $20,000 per year of lunch debt.”
Superintendent Dr. Lynda Andre confirmed to 5 On Your Side, a typical school year will total about $20,000 in unpaid school lunches. Dr. Andre said no child will go hungry or be shamed for the debt. Instead, the school budgets enough to cover the amount every year.
“I was astonished,” Oberweis said. “And motivated to want to do something.”
With the help of some other mothers in the school district, Oberweise launched an online campaign to pool some funds from families willing to donate. "School Lunch Debt Solutions" has a Facebook page and a YouCaring site now up and running, with already more than $2,000 donated.
“I know that we never realized it was that much,” said another parent, Lynette Watson. “If we could get together to absorb that $20,000 a year, then the district can do something else with that money.”
Through this effort, Oberweis and the other mothers hope to open the minds of people in the school district who might not realize other families might be struggling.
“We’re two different towns living together. We have a really strong, generous, wealthy population living right beside a separate population that’s struggling, that’s working to make ends meet but not always achieving that goal,” she said.
