The issue: Some families make too much to get help but too little to really afford school meals for their children. Some families have their debt sent to the City Treasurer for collections from school meal debt. And here's the kicker - a lot of these families have students that attend schools that are federally eligible for the Free Lunch Programs but the school system chooses not to enroll them.

In 2018, to qualify for free school breakfast and lunch a child’s family had to be at or below 130% the Federal Poverty Line. To qualify for reduced breakfast and lunch a child’s family had to be at or below 185% of the poverty line. This means families between 185% and 200% of the Federal Poverty Line did not qualify for assistance even though we know that this income range is still considered to be economically disadvantaged.

This means that there are families that cannot afford to feed their children and they go into debt for school meals. There are local school policies that are problematic and actually can make a bad situation worse. We are working for change.

We fight childhood hunger in three ways:

Raise money for families in debt for feeding their children.
Raise awareness about bad policies around school meal debt.
Help change the local policies to be more just and equitable for local students and families. Get all federally eligible schools enrolled into CEP.

Please contribute today and every penny will go toward erasing school meal debt in Hampton.

Then join us in the fight to make changes! https://vabloccareproject.com/

This fundraiser is not currently accepting any donations.