BOONVILLE – Touched by a You-Tube video about a boy bringing extra food to a school friend who had none, Melinda Mitchell resolved to pay Warrick County students’ meal debts.
Mitchell on Friday launched Warrick County School Lunch Buddies, a small group of alumni that has already collected $1,200 in donations to defray unpaid school meal balances. The money is owed by students who pay full price for meals and some who pay reduced prices of 40 cents for lunch and 30 cents for breakfast. Students who are eligible for federally funded free or reduced-price meals also can find themselves in debt if they run up negative balances before filling out an application.
“Most people don’t even understand that this is happening. Every single day this is happening. I think just getting the word out will make a difference,” said Mitchell, a Newburgh resident.
Warrick County School Corporation officials put the total of unpaid meal balances at $4,505 -- a figure slashed from $36,000 several years ago when the school system limited amounts that students could charge.
Middle school students can charge up to $10 before they are served peanut butter sandwiches, fruit and milk, said Shenae Rowe, the school system’s food & nutrition director. High school students
may not charge meals. The limit for elementary school students is $20, but Rowe said that number is hard to enforce.
“We feel like it’s not the elementary kids’ fault,” she said. “We want them all to get the full meal.”
Donations raised by Warrick County School Lunch Buddies will help students in debt avoid being turned over to school system attorneys who can file Small Claims Court complaints against them, Rowe said. That can prove expensive with court costs, attorney fees and interest payments.
It is a step the school system tries to avoid with calls, emails, letters and notes home to students’ families.
Over three months this year, the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation sued nearly 500 families and individuals over unpaid balances for textbook and netbook/laptop rentals, meals and daycare services.
With less than half EVSC’s 23,000-student population, the Warrick County School Corporation reports filing about 100 cases this year.
Mitchell said Warrick County School Lunch Buddies hopes next school year to begin raising money to defray unpaid balances for textbook rentals, now more than $150,000. Rowe said potential donors may call the school corporation at (812) 897-1341, designating their contributions for individual students or entire schools.
Whatever money is raised will be targeted to students most in need and in consultation with school cafeteria managers, counselors and principals, Rowe said.
“These funds typically will cover some people that might owe $5 up to – we have some families that might owe $400 or $500 because they have multiple siblings and lost a job and things like that,” she said.
“I wanted to make sure that it goes to the right families that are in need in the community.”