Photo by Michael Kelly Students line up in the cafeteria at Beverly-Center Elementary School before the holiday break. A new group has been established to fund the lunches for all students in the Fort Frye Local school district, making its first donation at the December board of education meeting.

At the Dec. 19 meeting of the Fort Frye Local Schools board of education, Emily Griffin and Kaelee Holland presented the district with a check for $1,993.60, enough to cover the cost of lunches for all the children who pay full or reduced prices for lunch at the school for the month of December.

The district serves all its students free breakfast under a state program but its poverty rate falls short of the guidelines that would qualify it for universal free lunch. Out of the 1,066 students enrolled in the district, according to Ohio Department of Education data, 337 qualify for free lunch and 116 qualify for reduced-cost lunch, leaving 613 students in the district who pay the full price for lunch, which is $2.45 for elementary students and $2.70 for high school students.

Schools in Washington County and elsewhere occasionally receive donations to settle outstanding lunch bills for families, but Griffin and Holland, along with their friend David Medley want to go beyond the Salem-Liberty donation.

“We hope to continue throughout the district, then all of Washington County. Our whole purpose is that no child should face hunger while trying to earn an education,” Griffin said after the board meeting.

Photo by Michael Kelly The "money wall" at Peoples Savings Bank in Lower Salem offers customers a chance to contribute cash to a new group dedicated to paying for all student lunches at local schools.

Fort Frye superintendent Stephanie Starcher noted that even for families who don’t qualify for free or reduced lunch under the poverty guidelines, paying the lunch bill can be a struggle.

“It can still be a challenge for those families,” she said.

Griffin and Holland both have sons in first grade at Salem-Liberty, but Griffin said they started the project at that school because it’s the smallest in the district, with an enrollment of 118, of which 79 students pay full price for lunch and 16 pay a reduced price.

They started the project on a small scale with surprisingly big results. Peoples Savings Bank in Lower Salem, just down the road from the school, agreed to let them set up a “money wall” along the tellers’ counter, with envelopes for cash that people could detach and fill with a donation, which was kept secure by the bank. In less than two months they collected about $2,500. The donation Dec. 20 covered the cost of reduced and full price lunches served to Salem-Liberty students in the month of December, and with another $485 covered the cost of lunch for students on the reduced-price plan for the rest of the school year, Griffin said.

Griffin said the next step is to establish a 501(c)3 charity to channel collections as a registered charitable organization.

“This is so people know what they’re giving their money to, not just a group of three people standing by the road asking them for money,” Griffin said. A registered charity can receive money from donors and contribute it to grantees, and issue tax receipts. Such organizations are governed by strict laws to assure donors their funds are being used legitimately.

She said she, Holland and Medley will meet in January to move the process along. The immediate goal is to underwrite the cost of lunch across the district, which she estimates could amount to $250,000. And she means to take the project further.

“The whole county, the state, the nation,” she said.

Marietta Community Foundation Executive Director Heather Allender said the group, which currently goes under the name “Money for Meals,” consulted the foundation.

“They shared their idea, and at that point, just like any nonprofit that comes to us, we gave them some advice,” Allender said. “This is a unique project. You see stories here and there about paying off lunch bills, but this is the first concentrated effort of this kind I’ve seen.”

Griffin, Holland and Medley all are members of the Lower Salem United Methodist Church. Griffin says they see it as both a social project and a ministry.

“We’re thinking of calling it Five and Two Ministries, you know, for the loaves and fishes,” Griffin said.

Holland said her grandmother runs the Tri-County Food Pantry in Lower Salem, giving her some direct experience with the prevalence of hunger and food insecurity in the community.

“We want to hold fundraisers, apply for grants, we’d like any help we can get,” she said. “We want to make things better for every child.”

“What a wonderful heart you have to do this,” Fort Frye board president Stephanie Lang said at the meeting.

Anyone interested in donating to the project or becoming involved in it can call Griffin at 740-213-2091.

Michael Kelly can be reached at mkelly@mariettatimes.com.

Money for Meals

• Goal is to provide children in the Fort Frye Local school district with school lunches at no cost.

• Currently seeking 501(c)3 charity status.

• First round of fundraising brought in $2,500.

Source: Money for Meals.