Joining the regional trend of public school districts stepping up to help students who are short on lunch money, the Warren County R-III School District also has taken initiative to close the gap.While many students are covered under the free-and-reduced lunch program, others use funds to pay for their lunches.Not until recently was it discovered in St. Louis-area schools that some of these students were being neglected.Students without enough funds on their lunch cards or in their accounts were not being provided adequate meals and were facing the stress of a financial burden at a very young age.The Warren County School District considered how it could make sure students in the district would not go without food.Beginning in November, funds from the Care to Learn program have been used to cover the gap.The Mission of Care to Learn is to provide immediate funding to meet emergent needs in the areas of health, hunger and hygiene so every student can be successful in school.“This is practiced in all our buildings, kindergarten through 12th grade,” said Assistant Superintendent Dr. Jill Schowe. “Since the beginning of last fall, we have paid over $4,400 to cover student meals.”In the past, Care to Learn was typically used to provide items related to health, hunger or hygiene for students who did not have sufficient funds for those necessities. Oftentimes, these were clothes or needs such as toothpaste.Other schools such as Windsor and Parkway have received donations to help handle the significant debts being owed for student lunches.On average the total student debt to the district runs between $2,500 to $3,000.The district takes advantage of the Operation Backpack program, which guarantees students have something to eat while they are not at school. Students go home over the weekends and holidays with groceries.Schowe says this new initiative is another way of making certain students have all the resources they need to thrive both in life and in the classroom.“The plus to all this is that no student has to go hungry, and the cafeteria staff doesn’t have to give a student a cheese sandwich and milk or juice tray,” said Schowe. “Everyone leaves the lunch room happy.”Warren County R-III School District logo