Meals for Sequim Kids Fund 2019-20

▪School lunch debt is a problem for families and schools across the country. ▪Current school lunch debt in Sequim is about $30,000 (May 2019). ▪Sequim Schools budgets over $200,000 a year to provide free breakfast to all students and to keep the cost of school lunch down. ▪Sequim Schools HAS NOT & DOES NOT practice "lunch-shaming." ▪ A student's lunch debt will follow the student, accumulating year to year, until that debt becomes due at graduation. ▪By law, all fees, including lunch debt, must be paid at graduation to the complete the graduation process. 《NOTE: All graduating students participate in graduation, receiving a blank diploma until fees, if any, are cleared》 ▪District Administration, Food Services (Sodexo), and each school decide how the Meal donations ( and others) are best distributed. Meals for Sequim Kids Fund is not involved in any of those decisions ▪This year (2018-19), private donations for lunch debts, given directly to the schools, not through the Meals Fund. was more than Meals raised. ▪All the money collected by the Meals for Sequim Kids Fund  effort is donated to the Sequim Schools. Fees are taken out by GoFundMe before those donations are sent to Meals ▪Public school students cannot be gifted taxpayer money from the Schools's budget by law. Individuals can donate to a separate school account that CAN BE used to help pay a specific student's lunch debt. ▪43% of Sequim District students qualify for the Free and Reduce Lunch Program. When these families get behind in lunch payments, it's tough for them to come up with the funds to pay those debts. ▪The Meals Fund is not enabling families struggling to pay their school meal debts. Other local fund raising organizations answer the "enabling" question in similar ways. You can help! ● Donate at any First Federal Savings & Loan branch ● Donate online at the Meals for Sequim Kids Fund GoFundMe site at https://www.gofundme.com/MealsForSequimKidsFund) ● Donate directly to the food services meal debt account at the Sequim School District Office (Recommended for larger donations)