Casey’s donation to help hungry kids
The local Casey’s General Store collected $1,800 in the month of January to help make sure students in Siloam Springs schools don’t go without a hot lunch.
The store put out a donation bucket with a sign that read “Help Siloam Springs’ hungry kids,” and customers gave $1,800 in just 30 days, according to cashier Robert Brown. The money was divided evenly among the high school, middle school and intermediate school.
The money will be used to help students who don’t have enough
money in their lunch accounts to pay for a meal. Currently, students are allowed to charge up to three meals. After that, they are given peanut butter sandwiches to eat, according to Jason Carter, child nutrition director for the school district. The district also offers free and reduced price lunches to qualifying students.
Casey’s employees decided to give to the intermediate, middle and high schools because the school adopters programs provide similar funds to help students at Northside, Southside and Allen Elementary Schools.
Kevin Snavely, high school vice principal, said the money donated by Casey’s will be used for the school’s “No Kid Hungry Fund.” Cafeteria employees know the students best and will be able to use the money to help students who are in need, he said.
The middle school will use the money in a similar way, according to Teresa Morgan, middle school principal.
“I think it’s amazing that you guys had the heart to do this,” she said.
Casey’s corporate often holds fundraisers for causes such as Arkansas Children’s Hospital, but this fundraiser was led by local employees, said Randie Toto, store manager.
The lunch money fundraiser actually began as a joke last October, Brown and Toto said. A spider decorating the store for Halloween lost its leg. For fun, employees gave the spider a fork leg for a prosthesis and added a cup with a note that said “Please donate to help me get a new leg.” Much to the employee’s surprise, customers started putting money in the cup, Brown said.
Toto began brainstorming ways to use the money donated to the spider and was inspired to give it to the school by an incident that happened to her nephew. Her nephew forgot to tell his parents that he was out of lunch money. When he went through line at school and couldn’t pay, he had to dump his tray in the trash.
Toto thought the donated money could be used to help make sure other kids who have negative lunch account balances don’t go hungry. (Students who don’t have money for a lunch are given a peanut butter sandwich, but Toto’s nephew didn’t stick around to get a sandwich after he had to dump out his tray.)
Carter explained that the school lunch program is paid for by federal funds, and the school has to follow strict federal and state regulations. For example, United States Department of Agriculture requires the cashier to be at the end of the cafeteria line so that the school employee can make sure that students have the correct number and type of servings on their tray. This could potentially result in students having to dump out their trays when they don’t have money in their lunch accounts, he said.
The store was able to raise $500 in October and donated the money to the high school. Then in January, local employees decided to have another fundraiser for school lunches. Customers were extra generous and one even donated a $100 bill, Brown said.
Carter said the school district is grateful for the donation, and said the fundraiser is another example of the generosity of the Siloam Springs community.