OXFORD, Ohio — The Talawanda School District has been seeing an increase in student lunch debt and families struggling to pay since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Currently, their debt sits at just over $58,000.
I asked the district’s director of communications and public engagement, Holli Hansel, how the debt reached that number.
“One of the contributing factors is that during COVID, the government made meals free,” Hansel said. “And then COVID funding dried up.”
Hansel also said she attributes a lack of state funding and inflation to the increase in lunch debt, adding that they aren’t the only district seeing this issue.
“It’s not unique to Talawanda School District. It's really happening all around the state,” Hansel said.
Hear why families are struggling to pay their debt, and how the district plans to decrease the amount:
Breakfast for all students in the district costs $1.75 a day. Lunch for elementary students is $3, and lunch for middle and high school students is $4.
If students eat breakfast and lunch every day, that adds up to around $95 per month for elementary students and $115 per month for middle and high school students.
“Lunch is expensive, whether you pack it or you let them buy here,” said Madison Wetzel, the assistant secretary for Talawanda High School.
For five years, until this school year, Wetzel was a success liaison at Talawanda High School, helping families overcome barriers between home and school.
The district offers free and reduced lunches for families who meet a certain income threshold, which 40% of their students meet. But Wetzel said when she helped families who struggled to pay for their kids' lunch, it was often families just above the threshold that struggled the most.
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“As a parent, if you’re trying to choose between putting $200 on a lunch account for your two kids at the high school that will last you a month maybe, or paying your electricity bill when it’s -5 degrees outside, you’re gonna be like, 'I know those cafeteria workers are gonna feed my kids so I’m gonna pay my bill,'” Wetzel said.
Talawanda has seen two anonymous donations come in since December to help cover the debt, totaling around $7,000.
They’ve also had several people call in about donating to the debt, and had a Talawanda High School student bring in around $2,000 after a successful fundraiser.
Hansel told us the district has plans to address the debt.
“We actually, recently, just applied for a grant in the amount of $16,000,” Hansel said. “We’re really hoping that through a variety of sources we’ll be able to get that debt down.”
