Texas Church Pays Off School Lunch Debt for More than 200 Students
- Updated Jan 16, 2019
One Texas Church band together over the holidays to donate $10,000 to pay off an entire school districts student lunch debt.
According to NBC 5, Royse City First United Methodist Church has a tradition of donating its Christmas Eve offerings to charity.
In 2017, the congregation decided to donate half of the offerings to their “sister school” to help families who had fallen behind on payments for their student’s lunches.
After witnessing the impact the donation made in the previous year, the church decided to help the entire Royse City Independent School District in 2018.
In an interview with NBC 5, the church’s pastor Chris Everson said that helping the community is what the church is called to do. Everson said, “If the church does not impact the community the church is in, then the church isn't doing its job.”
“With us having the opportunity to make an impact, then we are doing what Christ has called us to do to – serve the least of these,” he added.
According to NBC 5, Everson had asked the church in the fall to consider the amount of money they spend on their Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners. He then asked each family to try to save that amount of money to put forward in a donation. Together the 200-member church was able to save more than $10,000 to be donated to the ISD.
The Christian Post reports that donation paid off student’s lunch debts that were $20 or more. According to the NBC 5, when students exceed $25 in debt the school can no longer provide them with a hot meal for lunch and instead they are given a ham or turkey sandwich, a carton of milk and a piece of fruit. The churches donation was able to help 226 families for around $6,000. The school district will hold the remaining $4,000 to pay off future student debts, the Christian Post reports.
According to NBC 5, the church made the donation quietly around Christmas, but the school chose to announce the donation on Monday.
Photo courtesy: Pixabay/Pexels
Video courtesy: NBC 5
