Russell Stover employees and an Arkansas woman who is an IHS alum, have paid the past-due balances for school meals for dozens of students in the Iola district.
The candy factory employees raised $1,972.38, enough to cover all of the past-due balances at Iola Elementary School, Superintendent Stacey Fager said. The families of those 25 students have been notified.
The candy factory employees visited the elementary school on Thursday to deliver the check. Among the crew was the Easter Bunny who led students in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance that morning.
A few weeks ago, Becca Martin, a 1976 graduate of Iola High School, donated $175 after learning the district requires students to either have lunch balances paid in full or agree to a payment plan in order to attend prom. She said she didn’t believe it was fair to punish students, especially those who live in low-income homes. Prom is expensive enough without additional expenses, she said.
Fager said no student will miss prom solely because of past-due meal balances if their family can agree to a payment plan.
The board approved a policy several years ago that requires meal balances to be paid in order to attend prom or graduation ceremonies, or to have a payment plan in place.
Other districts in the county do not have a policy that ties meal balances to prom attendance.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the USDA paid for all school meals across the nation during the 2021 and 2022 school years. As a result, students did not have outstanding meal balances the past two years.
Congress terminated the benefit this year, so districts returned to existing policies, Fager said.
