A teacher has vowed to pay off every single one of his students' meal debts so their parents don't have to worry about feeding their children while they're at school. Gabe Segal, who works at Herndon Middle School, in Virginia, America, could end up parting with more than $10,000 (£8,210) after making this promise to his students.
The 29-year-old has seen children practically falling asleep in his class because they didn't have enough energy - or calories - in their bodies to keep them going throughout the school day. He told The Washington Post: "If I check in on one of the students I mentor and they’re having a rough day, usually the first thing I ask is, 'Did they eat?' Predominantly the answer is, 'No'.
"A lot of those kids have fallen through the cracks. Since I’m a teacher, I see first-hand what some of our kids are going through."
When Gabe first made this commitment, the school's meal debt totalled about $1,200 (£999) - but now it's looking closer to $7,500 (£6,251) and the school year isn't even over yet.
He started fundraising for the extra cash when it exceeded a certain limit, knowing he wasn't going to be able to cover it all on his teacher's salary.
But this isn't the first time he has erased a school's meal debt, as when he taught at Sleepy Hollow Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia, he used money he received from the government to clear more than $600 (£499) of its students' debts.
Speaking at the time, he told Fairfax County Times: "We’ve all been doing double the work, but it’s important to look around and help if you can because there’s a lot of families that are really struggling."
Gabe has partnered with Educate Fairfax to raise money to cover the ever-growing meal debts at schools in his area, knowing it will be an ongoing problem each and every year until the government makes an all-important change to how it runs its schools.
A Educate Fairfax statement reads: "Recently, the issue of school lunch debt in Fairfax and other counties has garnered increasing attention. No one likes the thought of students being denied access to food.
"FCPS (Fairfax County Public Schools) has a strict policy that prohibits the practice of 'lunch shaming' or denying food to a student whose school lunch account is in arrears.
"Instead, the FCPS Food and Nutrition Services office is required by law to communicate directly with parents, not students, to notify them of outstanding balances.
"Lunch debt accrues due to a number of factors, including simple oversight, but it is not related to students who currently receive free or reduced meals (FRM), as these accounts do not incur debt. Lunch debt varies greatly within FCPS schools and it is often difficult to pinpoint the exact need at a specific school at a given moment.
"Educate Fairfax accepts contributions to off-set student lunch debt in our school system. For the greatest impact, we ask that you earmark donations for “Erase School Lunch Debt” and not for a specific school.
"This will allow FCPS Food and Nutrition Services to clear the accounts of students who were not accepted for FRM benefits or who are awaiting approval of these benefits.
"We are grateful for the generous donors who want to assist this effort. To contribute, please click on the Donate Now button and type "Erase School Lunch Debt" in the donor note field."
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