Church VBS camp raises more than $3,000 to pay off lunch debt for Willard, Mo. students

WILLARD, Mo. (KY3) - Willard Public School students will start the new year free of school lunch debt.

First Baptist Church of Willard’s vacation bible school camp raised $3,600 this summer to donate to the district.

”There was $2,800 in student debt for lunches, so we put out the challenge to another group of people, and they just kept giving and giving,” said Pastor Mark Milioni.

The race to raise money led to fun incentives like Pastor Mark getting a pie in the face to some kids going as far as pulling out loose teeth for a special visit from the tooth fairy.

The Willard Schools Nutrition Department sent us this statement about the donation.

“Our nutrition department and district is extremely grateful for this display of generosity. On behalf of the students who will benefit from this amazing gift, we would like to thank First Baptist of Willard for their donation.”

The district says a good resource for our families in need of assistance is the free and reduced meal application.

“It’s easy and fast to apply for meal assistance, free, or reduced-priced meals for our breakfast and lunch programs,” said Broyles. “The application can be filled out at any point, and student’s status will be updated after the application gets processed, so if families do not qualify the first time but circumstances change, they have the opportunity to apply again throughout the school year.”

The district says the application process is confidential and is used only to determine eligibility for school meals. For more information, click HERE.

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