LINN — St. John’s United Methodist Church members are using a portion of their congregational offerings to help reduce student lunch balances at Linn Elementary, directing weekly collections toward a need that impacts local families.

Sunday collections have been held through February and are planned for another couple of weeks before funds are presented to the school to help offset nearly $1,750 in overdue elementary lunch balances. Congregants have raised a little over $1,500 of the church’s $1,800 goal. Overall, the school’s lunch balance (K-12) was at $4,700 as of Friday.

Sunday School Committee members ran with the idea presented by retired Linn R-2 elementary principal Bonnie Baker, who is at school quite a bit in her part-time substitute capacity. “The lunches are so good out there, and I’ve noticed it’s such a marked difference,” she said. “When I was working, you had to supervise the kids in the cafeteria so much because they weren’t eating. Now they’re eating. And I thought, ‘Oh, this is such a good thing,’ because, you know, if kids will eat, they’re better the rest of the day. They do better. They get along better and everything. And there are just so many kids who need food. And I know that not everybody qualifies for free lunches, and even some who do, don’t sign up. But some people need help, and we need to do something for them. And I don’t want any kid not being able to eat. That’s a terrible thing.

“Here in the Methodist Church, we do a lot of things worldwide,” she continued. “We have missions that we contribute to, and we do that every year, but we have felt the need to do things locally, too. And that was something that we could do locally that would really help a lot of people.”

St. John’s raises funds for the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), an organization that helps during disasters throughout the United States. “But we need to take care of our own community, too,” said Baker. “UMCOR does a lot of great things, but we need to look out for where we’re at, too.”

“I think Osage County does a good job on that, too,” committee member John Barnes, who joined the church with his wife, Cheryl, after they moved here from the Kansas City area.

Committee member Carol Branson recalled a Sunday School lesson that sparked the current project. “Part of that lesson was that there was a school where the kids who didn’t have money to pay for lunch had to sit at a different table,” she explained, adding that students received a peanut butter sandwich or something similar.

“They got a different meal, and everybody knew why,” J. Barnes added.

“When we heard that lesson, we thought, ‘surely our school doesn’t do that,’” said Branson.

“And they never have,” Baker interjected.

“They always get to eat, whether they’ve got money in their account or not,” Branson agreed.

Baker added that she believes the school would feed students even with a negative balance, which Superintendent Bob James and Food Service Director Kelly Crouse confirmed.

“We need to be fiscally responsible, but our leaders have latitude to make good decisions,” said James. “The board and the leadership team support Kelly’s efforts to make sure every kid is fed.”

Crouse said the support means more than just numbers on an account ledger.

“I think it’s awesome,” she said. “It’s amazing.”

Student meal accounts operate on a prepaid system, with balances turning negative when funds run out. Families receive billing statements, though some balances grow significantly over time.

“I don’t know if some of them can even plan to pay,” Crouse said.

Despite account status, Crouse said students are never denied a standard meal. “I’m going to feed them even if they don’t have lunch money,” she said.

Students without sufficient funds cannot purchase extra à la carte items such as chips or specialty drinks, but they still receive the regular meal.

Crouse added that protecting students from embarrassment is important. “We don’t want kids feeling separated,” she said, noting the district’s practice avoids isolating students.

In the event of an unpaid balance, James said administrators contact parents. “We don’t want to make students feel bad,” he noted. “This is an adult problem, not one the students own. We’re trying to help mitigate circumstances, but we can’t tip too far. We are acting with heart and compassion for our students and parents, but we have to balance because we have to be good stewards of the public’s money.”

Baker’s institutional knowledge and current substitute duties gave her significant insight into the situation and how things have changed over the years.

“When I first started teaching, everybody knew who was free and reduced because they had a different lunch ticket,” she said. “They went in and ate, and I snapped the lunch tickets; I knew, but nobody else knew.”

“When we talked about this, Bonnie was our go-to person to find out. And we knew that they were getting to eat, but she was our person who could find out what we needed to do and how to make it work,” said Branson.

“Doing this helps the school have a few more resources for the cafeteria,” J. Barnes added. “I’m not saying that you get steak instead of hamburger, but I think it just gives them more freedom.”

“Right, because the money is taken away from somewhere else to cover it,” said Branson.

“It has to come out of their budget somewhere,” J. Barnes agreed.

Branson noted the committee asked why one program should suffer to cover another, especially when it’s a direct service to students.

Crouse acknowledged the church’s initiative would help her maintain the already tight budget. “I stretch commodity foods and use scratch cooking methods to provide larger portions and balanced meals,” she said. “I get a lot of commodity meat, mainly commodity meat, so it’s free. A tube of hamburger can go pretty far.”

From her career at Jefferson City schools through her tenure at Linn R-2, Crouse has always enjoyed cooking. “I like the way I cook more than ordering pre-packaged foods that are just laid out,” she said. “You wouldn’t believe it. I’ll make soup and have pizza, and they’ll want soup. Spaghetti goes a lot farther than one Bosco or one square of pizza.”

Crouse always provides a selection of fresh fruit, which is new for some students. “I watch these kids, and the other day when I was out there, they had canned fruit cocktail, and beside it, they had fresh strawberries and cantaloupe,” said Baker, noting that some students chose the former. “One of their favorite things is a spinach salad with strawberries in it. She can’t make enough of it. A kid may go through and see their friends eating the fresh fruit, and they’re going, ‘Wow, this is good.’ He may get fresh fruit the next time.”

Most students finish their meals, and often, have as much as they want. “Kids think better and are more engaged in education with a full belly,” said Crouse.

James agreed. “Learning is challenging enough without your stomach growling,” he said. “I love the way Kelly engages our students and makes everyone feel welcome.”

Crouse agreed, noting that familiarity and personal connection matter. “I try to address everyone by their name when they go through the line,” she said. “I like to ask how their day is going, or tell them I like their haircut. Stuff like that makes them feel good, and I love them, too. They’re good kids.”

St. John’s members feel it too. “As a church, we have to remember that Jesus told us to love one another, and this is just one way that we can love people in our community,” said C. Barnes.

“Food ministries have become really important at St. John’s,” Pastor Kayla Kelly-Beard added. “Feeding people is always so deeply connected to the church. You can’t really separate meals from church family. But in the last few years, we’ve started the blessing box. We have a resource in here for when people come for other kinds of assistance. That way, we can say, ‘Do you need anything that’s easy to go?’ This project felt like a natural next step.”

Branson asserted that this is not a one-time thing. The group quietly raised and presented about $1,650 last year, and hopes to increase that with this year’s collections.

“I think we need to do it again at the end of the school year,” J. Barnes added. “Feeding kids just seems like it’s a top priority. What is more important than making sure kids are eating?”

The program may continue into the summer so that students and parents can get a little relief from meal costs. “In summer school, sometimes they get free lunches, but not always,” Baker explained. “That’s a formula tied to their free and reduced rates, but it would be nice if the government would give them all free lunches.”

St. John’s didn’t want to hold a fundraising event. “We wanted to do it this way and give the money from our church,” said Baker.

However, the initial plan was to keep it within the church and not announce the project. “It’s not about us,” Baker said. “We really are trying to do things in our community to make it better — because this is our community, this is our school, these are our kids, and these are our people — and we need to do everything we can to make it a better place to be. That’s what we as Christians are supposed to do. That’s why we’re doing it.”

Other people outside the church heard about the project and donated money.

“We don’t know what they do at the other schools in the county, but maybe somebody will see this and say, ‘You know, we could do that too,’” she said. “That’s our hope.”

Kelly-Beard noted that balance is key. “In the Gospels, Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee who’s late for worship, and he’s making a big deal about praying on the street corner; he’s really loud and wants everybody to know what he’s doing,” she said. “And, Jesus says, ‘Don’t do that. Pray in secret. And don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.’ I think there is an invitation to do what we feel called to do because we feel called to do it, not to give ourselves a pat on the back. But as a pastor, I think that it’s really important for communities to be able to see when a church is doing something that makes a difference. That we’re not always looking inward, but we are looking outward. We’re not perfect by any means, but I don’t think it’s an accident that at the end of the Gospel of John, when Jesus is encountering Peter after the resurrection, and Peter has denied Jesus three times, that Jesus asks him three times, ‘Do you love me?’ And every time that Peter says yes, Jesus says, ‘Then feed my sheep.’ There’s a spiritual feeding involved in that, but food is so central to what Jesus does, too, in the Gospels. Most of his lessons are tied to agriculture, food, or a meal. And that’s not by mistake. So much of what we do then is also tied to sharing food and a meal. A lot of our ministries have meals connected to them. As we begin to look outward, it makes sense to me that food would be connected to what we do for others.”

Linn R-2 seniors did their part as well. Sponsor Robyn Baker explained that during Courtwarming week, a class battle was held. “Instead of the traditional penny wars, since pennies are no longer being minted, we went with a nickel war,” she said. “The seniors won, and decided to use the money raised to pay up to $10 toward overdue lunch balances. I’m so proud of them.”

The school-wide effort resulted in the collection of approximately $220 in nickels.

The Osage County Democratic Party plans to hold a soup supper on Friday, March 13, from 4-7 p.m. at the Barefoot Event Center in Linn. Part of those funds will go to Linn R-2, but the total will be divided to benefit all three Osage County public schools. Homemade soups, crackers, and drinks will be served. A closer look at this fundraiser will be presented next week.

Superintendent James is thrilled. “What a blessing it is to have three groups leading efforts to help our students,” he said. “I couldn’t be any prouder of this community.”