Angels are paying for Wake school meals for students who don’t have the money
Community donations have allowed the Wake County school system to suspend the practice of serving only fruits and vegetables to students who don’t have the money to buy lunches.
The school district recently created a districtwide “Angel Fund” to accept financial donations that would be used whenever students run out of money in their meal account. The financial response has been so great that the district announced Tuesday it’s now telling cafeterias to serve students the regular lunch, even if students don’t have the money.
The district has raised $11,320 so far for the Angel Fund, according to Paula De Lucca, Wake’s senior director for Child Nutrition Services. In addition, she said a group has agreed to donate $5,000 a month for up to $35,000 this school year.
“Thank you to our community,” school board vice chair Monika Johnson-Hostler said at Tuesday’s meeting. “I hope as a district we see that our community is still in partnership with us .... Our community still believes in Wake County Public Schools and our students and our educators.”
‘Very grateful’ to the public
Students are expected to pay for their lunch unless they qualify for a federally subsidized school meal or attend a school that serves free meals to all students.
Under board policy, students are allowed to have an unpaid balance of up to three days of meals before they get only fruits and vegetables. School board member Sam Hershey asked his colleagues Tuesday to consider eliminating that policy.
Last school year, the alternate meal of fruits and vegetables was served 8,000 times. This led to concerns that those students were being publicly shamed.
De Lucca said they’ll give the new districtwide funding to schools who are running low on their individual angel accounts.
“This will prevent, hopefully, all students from ever this year encountering a situation where an alternate meal is the only option,” De Lucca told the board. “So we’re very grateful for that.”
Donations still needed
Despite the good news, De Lucca said the community should still keep donating money. She said they need to be ready should the Angel Fund run low.
“Don’t assume what we’ve received is sufficient because going forward we will always need funds to carry our students in this effort,” De Lucca said.
De Lucca said she’s working on finding a way for people to donate using credit cards. But in the meantime, parents who have a meal account can fill out a form at wcpss.net/Page/43961 to donate money.
Community members who want to donate are asked to call Child Nutrition at 919-856-2918.
This story was originally published September 4, 2024 at 8:00 AM.
