PLEASANT GROVE, Utah — An anonymous donor gave nearly $100,000 to cover breakfast and lunch meals for students at Pleasant Grove school.
KaCee and Spencer Smuin are the parents of a first-grader at Manila Elementary and received the news through email.
“A general donor had offered to cover all the kids' school lunches for the rest of the year,” said Spencer. “Just to make one less thing that people have to worry about.”
According to school principal Rachelle Spencer, children were able to receive free meals for the last two years after the pandemic.
“They wanted to continue that,” she said. “They didn’t want the children to go hungry or worry about where their next meal would be coming from.”
The email also said that the donation was a way for students at Manila to focus all their efforts on growing physically, socially and mentally instead of worrying about food.
Krystyl Hill, who has two children attending the school, says the donation is huge for parents so they no longer have to worry about being able to afford food who might not have the meals to do so.
“It relieves a lot of stress, obviously,” she said.
Another parent said these acts of kindness go a long way, especially in challenging times.
“I’ve seen kids come to school hungry and I’ve seen kids come to school who don’t have very much food at home,” said Rachelle. “This is a huge blessing to our parents, to our children, to our families as well so they are able to focus on other things.”
Ashley Harris is a parent and a teacher at the school and said the donation has made a deep impact on her kids.
“As a teacher, I know so many students just don’t have the means right now with inflation and everything that’s going on,” said Harris. “To have someone pay that donation so that children can eat everyday is just amazing.
“As a mom, just knowing that someone would care about our little ones that much is just amazing to me."
The Alpine School District said the donor hopes to expand the program to other schools so no kid goes to class hungry.
