When school is back in session in Republic, no student will have to wonder whether they’ll be able to get a hot lunch at school. The Republic PTO announced Thursday that it had teamed with two local business owners and other donors to eliminate lunch debt district-wide: a total of $2,742.92.
It all started with a conversation among Republic residents on the “Getting to Know Republic, MO” Facebook page, where the idea of paying off lunch debt was “buzzing around,” according to Christa Stephens, the owner of Inviktus Salon.
“Everyone was talking about what they could do and how they could help,” and I just finally was like, ‘Let’s stop talking about it and let’s do it,'” Stephens said.
From there, Stephens set up a fundraising page on the GoFundMe website to take donations, and partnered with her husband, Case Howard, the owner of Black Lab Coffee, to raise money locally.
“We have so many children, between the salon and the coffee shop, that we’ve watched grow up… I’ve met a lot of really sweet kiddos that I absolutely couldn’t think about going without lunch,” Stephens said. “I’ve been that kid who was told I had to have an alternative lunch because that lunch balance wasn’t paid, and I didn’t want that to ever happen. I think the way one is made to feel because of that, I never wanted a child to feel that way.”
Stephens contacted Republic PTO President Amber Greek about the idea, and Greek worked with PTO organizations at each of the five elementary schools to help expand the effort.
“I knew it was on Christa’s heart, and our hearts are in the same page when it comes to that,” she said. PTO organizations at each school building helped cover the remaining balance, and made sure even students in high school, where there is no PTO, would be covered.
“To me, kids are kids and it doesn’t matter if they’re in high school or elementary,” Greek said. “They still need to eat. If they’re a district kid, they’re a district kid.”
In addition to contributions gathered by Stephens and Howard, contributions from Republic PTO, and some local contributions given at the coffee shop, another $500 came from an anonymous donor.
“It definitely wasn’t all us,” Stephens said. “There’s lot of people who stepped up and helped with this.”
Greek said it’s indicative of the generosity of people and businesses in Republic, who have supported PTO long before the current crisis.
“Even if this situation wasn’t going on, we still wanted to do something like this and we were talking about it two to three months ago. I know the outcome would have been the same,” she said. “We want to serve. The more help we get from businesses and parents when we ask for it during the school year, the more beautiful things we can do.”