The Arby’s Foundation has given $1 million to help pay off school lunch debt in US children. A major step toward tackling a widespread issue, the effort affects 7,413 Georgia kids.
Arby’s Foundation Takes the Lead with $1 Million Pledge to Pay Off School Lunch Debt (Photo: Google)
$1 Million Pledge to Pay Off School Lunch Debt
According to Good Morning America, the foundation is targeting four metro Atlanta public school districts to erase meal bills for qualified children with a $203,534 gift. This focused investment underscores the foundation’s community-level impact-making objective to help children pay off school lunch debt.
Rita Patel, Arby’s brand president, stressed the foundation’s commitment to providing children with consistent meals, fighting childhood hunger nationwide, and strengthening communities. The foundation’s comprehensive strategy emphasizes nutrition’s importance in student growth and well-being beyond financial aid.
The remaining $800,000 from the generous contribution will be judiciously dispersed to schools worldwide to help 47,000 children succeed without meal debt.
The Education Data Initiative estimates that 30.4 million children owe $262 million in school meal debt. Recent initiatives by the Arby’s Foundation highlight the critical need to overcome this cost barrier to kids’ important meals.
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Arby’s Foundation Answers the Call to Pay Off School Lunch Debt
As part of the COVID-19 pandemic stimulus, Congress made school meals free and universal for two years. However, the shift away from universal free meals has caused some parents problems, requiring proof of free and reduced-price lunch status.
Despite legislation like the School Meal Debt Cancellation Act of 2023, school meal debt endures. Families that may not qualify for aid struggle to feed their children.
Arby’s Foundation will pay off school lunch debt, after a larger campaign last year in Boardman, Ohio, where the fast-food business was founded in 1964.
The narrative of “Pay Off School Lunch Debt” highlights the urgency and impact of such philanthropic efforts, highlighting the persistent challenges faced by students and families nationwide and the Arby’s Foundation’s commendable efforts to improve things.
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