KSHB 41 reporter Alyssa Jackson covers portions of Johnson County, including Overland Park, Prairie Village and Leawood. Share your story idea with Alyssa.
When parents send kids to school, their children will be fed during the school day.
School lunches come with a cost that someone has to pay. That is usually the parent's responsiblity.
However, it can also become a school district's problem.
Grace Liss oversees food operations for the Shawnee Mission School District.
"I like to tell people I'm responsible for 47 restaurants that happen to be in schools," Liss said.
The Shawnee Mission School District has $230,874.54 in school meal debt.
There was a universal free lunch program during the COVID-19 pandemic. That program has ended.
While parents can apply for the United States Department of Agriculture's free and reduced meal program, it's based on federal poverty guidelines.
Even if a family's application is approved, a prior negative balance on a school lunch account remains their responsibility.
"For some, they know if I need to make my car payment this month the school is still going to provide my child with meals," Liss said.
If a student's account balance is not paid, Liss said USDA regulation requires school districts to come up with a way to cover negative meal debt.
It can't come out of federal funds that run the free and reduced meal program.
The SMSD must use money from the general fund to cover unpaid meal balances.
According to the Education Data Initiative, a national research group, there's a national average of $176 million in school meal debt each year.
In Liss' office, they ring a bell when a random donor calls to pay off a student's account.
"We get excited about any donation and we ring a bell," she said. "We have a random donor that calls every month and says ‘let’s find two kids’."'
They may have rung a bell a couple of weeks ago when they got a message from Neighbors for a Better Roeland Park.
The Roeland Park-based 501 (c) (4) nonprofit paid off more than half of the school meal debt for Roesland Park Elementary School.
"We want to see what we could do for kids from Roeland Park in that feeder path and the first step was to pay off as much school debt as we could," said Shea Geist, board member for Neighbors for a Better Roeland Park.
The nonprofit has an annual summer concert series that's always free to the public. They allocate donations they collect at the concerts to go toward an initiative or worthy cause.
Roesland Park Elementary School had $2,402.10 in meal debt.
The organization initially donated $1,000 of their summer concert proceeds to pay off some of the balance.
When the group shared the news with the community, they got another $500 on Monday to put toward the debt — bringing their total donation to $1,500.
"We're super proud of that...that is touching," Geist said. "We'll see what we can knock out next."
Eventually, the organizations hopes to pay off school meal debt for all Roeland Park families in their feeder pattern. Donations at the concerts this summer could bring them closer to that goal.
Anyone interested in contributing to the group's efforts can donate here.
Concerts are held on Saturdays at 6pm in Roeland Park at the R Park Pavilion, 5535 Juniper Dr.
The first concert is on June 28th.