Community Pays off Public School Lunch Debt in 2 Hours

COLUMBUS - An effort by the Columbus community, has shown that it cares for both the families and students attending the local schools. Jenna Clark recently began working on ways to give back to the community, and her and her family decided they would pay off the lunch debt for students at the high school.  The debt consists of students, that are unable to pay for their lunches at school from the previous year. "What we find is that those that are on the reduced lunch schedule, you know sometimes that's still hard to find money. The next group, the families that just miss out on that free and reduced lunch, often have difficulties getting those payments made for school lunch," says Clark. After getting the high school lunch debts payed off, Clark asked local CPS staff member Carly Whitney, to help total the lunch debts for the rest of the Columbus Public Schools. Once the total was gathered, Clark went live on Facebook to ask community members to help donate. "I kid you not, I went live this [Friday] morning at 10 o'clock, and by noon, every single debt was taken care of," says Clark. Clark is a former school interventionist for CPS, and has since moved on to pursue new career goals, but says she still wants to find ways to give back to the school and the students she worked with for the past 10 years.  Clark says she's heard the stories of those who are in need of help, during her time as a staff member, and says the help the community provided will make a world of difference for the kids.  Thousands of dollars were donated in the two hours, says Clark. Clark says if you would like to help out in the future, there is always a need and you can reach out to the school, or Clark, to find out how you can help.