Muscogee County School District receiving donations to help students pay for meals

Columbus residents are showing their generosity and compassion by donating to the Muscogee County School District’s school nutrition fund to help eliminate the debt from unpaid student meals.

Since the Ledger-Enquirer reported about the problem last Wednesday, MCSD has received $610 in donations to its federally funded program, Susan Schlader, the district’s school nutrition director, told the Muscogee County School Board during its work session Monday evening.

As of Monday, the total outstanding balance was $3,542.82, based on 986 delinquent student accounts (608 in elementary school, 275 in middle school and 103 in high school), Schlader said.

No MCSD money funds the school nutrition program; its $20 million budget comes entirely from the federal government, Valerie Fuller, the district’s communications director told the Ledger-Enquirer last week.

School nutrition personnel cannot take checks at the school, she said. To donate, make your check out to MCSD School Nutrition and mail it to Schlader at that office, 2960 Macon Road, Columbus, GA 31906. For more information, call her at 706-748-3219.

MCSD has received complaints about students being given an “alternative lunch” when they don’t have enough money in their account to pay for their hot meal. When students in the lunch line reach the cashier and are told they don’t have enough money to pay for their hot meal, they are given an alternative lunch, which consists of a sandwich (a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a cheese sandwich), a fruit and milk.

Federal guidelines don’t allow students to receive a hot lunch if their account is in arrears, and health department regulations require the original meal to be discarded, Schlader said.

Notification letters on overdue accounts are sent home, phone calls are made to parents and guardians, and school administrators are asked help contact the student’s home in extreme cases, she said.

Thirty-eight of MCSD’s 53 schools qualify for school-wide free lunch, meaning every student at that school may receive a free meal regardless of their family’s income.

These 15 MCSD schools don’t meet the criteria so they don’t offer free meals to every student: Blanchard, Britt David, Clubview, Double Churches, Eagle Ridge, Mathews, Midland and North Columbus elementary schools; Aaron Cohn, Blackmon Road, Midland and Veterans Memorial middle schools; Columbus, Northside and Shaw high schools. But students at those schools may qualify individually for free or reduced-priced meals if their parents or guardians apply.

This story was originally published February 14, 2017 at 12:05 PM with the headline "Muscogee County School District receiving donations to help students pay for meals."