Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Nutrition topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Rapid City committee approves $25,000 matching challenge to help school lunch deficit
Summary
The Legal & Finance Committee approved a $25,000 challenge fund from council contingency to match donations to the Rapid City School Foundation’s Fed and Ready to Learn program, with the matching period set for Aug. 5–Nov. 30, 2024. School nutrition staff said the district now carries a roughly $114,000 negative meal-account balance.
The Rapid City Legal & Finance Committee voted Aug. 14 to establish a challenge fund of up to $25,000 from the council contingency to match community donations to the Rapid City School Foundation’s Fed and Ready to Learn School Lunch Deficit Reduction Program. The committee set the matching period to run from Aug. 5 through Nov. 30, 2024, and approved the measure by voice vote.
Krista Leichner, student nutrition manager at Rapid City Area Schools, told the committee the district feeds all students the same lunch regardless of ability to pay and does not provide alternate meals or mark students who cannot pay. Leichner said the district collected more than $30,000 in payments over the summer but currently carries “just over $114,000 in total negative balance” and serves about 6,000 lunches per day. “We feed them,” she said. “We get them. They show up hungry. We feed them.”
School nurse Satyra Thompson urged the council to back the effort from a health perspective, saying hunger affects attendance, attention and behavior. “For some of our children, that is a reality,” Thompson said, describing students who present at the health office with headaches or stomachaches because they had not eaten.
Councilman Evans moved to approve the matching challenge and specified a timeline; after discussion and an amendment from Councilmember Seacrest, the committee approved a matching period beginning Aug. 5 and ending Nov. 30, 2024. The city attorney advised including the period that would capture donations made after the announcement at the prior council meeting to ensure early donors were eligible for matching.
Leichner told members that child nutrition funds cannot be used to cover negative balances and that any local coverage would have to come from the district’s general fund unless state or federal help is provided. She also noted that the free-and-reduced-price meal application is included with enrollment/back-to-school materials and that staff are processing applications quickly.
The committee’s action is a recommendation to the full council; the chair said the item will be presented to city council on Monday for final approval.
