WILSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) – For nearly three weeks, the Wilson County community joined together with county Democrats to come together to relieve lunch debt for local students.
“It wasn’t difficult. It’s a good cause,” said Democratic House candidate Joni Cochran.
It was Cochran who came up with the idea to pay off students’ school lunch debt by the end of this school year.
“There’s no doubt that we’re going to help kids succeed,” Cochran said Tuesday, May 14.
The community raised approximately $6,000 in donations, which will be donated to “Zone 5” schools, including Lebanon High School, Tucker’s Crossroads Elementary School and Barry Tatum Academy.Additionally, all Senior students in the district paid off their lunch debts and were relieved of the resulting burden.
“During this process…we also learned that fourth-year students are not able to graduate if they have lunch debt,” Cochran explained. “Don’t put anything around their necks. No albatross, no stones…whatever you want to call it. We shouldn’t do that to them! Oh my god, they have worked hard to get there and this should be one of their world-conquering moments.”
Although the campaign was led by county Democrats, Cochran said he welcomes and encourages Republican involvement in the effort. The numbers show it’s a pressing problem across the state.
“Tennessee has more than $51 million in student lunch debt and more than 285,000 food insecure students in Tennessee,” elaborated Miranda King, Interim Wilson County Democratic Party Chair. “this is, Tennessee Education Data Center”
King said Wilson County still has about $30,000 in school lunch debt. In neighboring counties, that number is more than triple.
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“After speaking with the nutrition departments in neighboring counties Sumner and Rutherford counties, we know that these counties have hundreds of thousands of dollars in school debt,” Professor King said.
With these numbers in mind, we have no intention of stopping this campaign.
“We’re looking forward to moving forward with this,” King said. “We will continue to raise money every month, and in fact we have several people who have already set up regular donations for this particular Lunch Debt campaign, so we are looking forward to that. Masu.”
