Some Apollo-Ridge students benefit from 'school lunch fairies' - and don't even know it
The Apollo-Ridge School District has several school lunch fairies — anonymous donors secretly paying school lunch debt for some cash-strapped students.
On the heels of school lunch shaming — students stigmatized for not paying lunch debt — comes the school lunch fairies.
They’ve been around for at least for a few years now; several women make secret donations to the Apollo-Ridge School District to pay for some unpaid lunch debt.
In October, the fairies’ donations drew down the lunch debt for 18 students, according to Kelli O’Rourke, the district’s food service director.
“I don’t tell the students. It’s just applied to their accounts,” she said. “And the people making the donations don’t know who I’m applying the money to.”
When students accrue a certain level of debt, the district still provides them lunch but can limit extra food items.
Cristine Kostiuk, president of the Apollo-Ridge Education Foundation, said: “It’s just a small thing that keeps things going for those kids.”
O’Rourke spreads the donations — totaling about $65 a month — across accounts in need.
One donor requested that her money to be applied to students with large balances due, while another requested her donation go specifically to students paying reduced rates.
More than 50 percent of Apollo-Ridge School District students qualify for free lunches and 7 percent are eligible for reduced-price lunches, according to O’Rourke.
The donation takes not only generosity but knowledge of need and sensitivity, said Kostiuk.
All she knows about the donors is that one lives within the school district and is associated with a church and the other knows someone who works for the school district.
Kostiuk talked to one of the women and learned she was inspired by media reports about school lunch shaming and a cafeteria worker who lost her job over giving free food to students in Idaho in 2015.
“People know we have a community that is poor,” she said.
While a substantial number of students receive free or almost free lunches, some residents who qualify don’t fill out the paperwork or struggle to pay for a multitude of reasons, she added.
Helping families pay for school lunch has caught on in other parts of the country.
The School Lunch Fairy, a nonprofit based in Wellington, Fla., distributes money nationally to pay for school lunches.
“While many families qualify for free or reduced-price meals, the threshold to qualify still leaves out too many families who are struggling financially,” said Christian Cordon-Cano, founder of School Lunch Fairy.
The organization has raised $53,000 to date and has made donations to 26 school districts across 11 states, including Pennsylvania.
Mary Ann Thomas is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Mary Ann at 724-226-4691, mthomas@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MaThomas_Trib.
