Thanks to All for Lunch, the holidays were a little bit brighter for some lucky Fayette County families as the non-profit donated more than $7,300 to clear all lunch debts with the Fayette County School Nutrition Program.

With the state no longer offering free lunch waivers and 75 percent of schools nationwide having school lunch debt, All for Lunch is stepping up efforts to keep communities lunch debt-free.

Alessandra Ferrara-Miller founded the non-profit when she heard a story of a young boy in elementary school elsewhere being denied a school lunch and sent home with a stamp on his arm stating that he needed lunch money.

“It broke my heart to picture any child, some as young as 5 years old in kindergarten, being denied lunch at school for financial circumstances they don’t even understand,” she said. “I truly believe children should be able to focus on learning and enjoying being a child while at school, not being hungry or worrying about how they will pay for their lunch bill.”

All for Lunch is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and 100% of donations made to All for Lunch go directly to schools and paying off school lunch debt. For more information and to donate to their fund for Fayette schools, go to allforlunch.org/Fayette.