Eagle Grove Area School District families with an outstanding lunch account balance got an unexpected, and much appreciated surprise last week. An anonymous staff member of the district paid off the entire outstanding balance on ALL lunch accounts.
While it’s true that all Eagle Grove students, regardless of income, are receiving free lunches for the remainder of the 2020 – 2021 school year, lunches did not start off that way. For the first couple of months of school, families not qualifying for the usual government free lunch program based on their income were still required to pay for their child’s meals. While that can be somewhat of a struggle for many families in the first place, COVID made it even more difficult to keep money in the account, proof being that despite having free meals for all students for the last month, there was still over $2,000 in outstanding lunch accounts that was owed to the school.
While the donor wishes to remain anonymous, Superintendent Jess Toliver said that when the employee came to him, they simply said, “Wouldn’t it be nice if kids could come back with a zero balance due on their account.”
This is sure to be a huge help to families in this school district. What a relief when they can all start off the 2021-2022 school year owing no money at all for the previous school year lunches.
