Serving up school lunch success: Potandon Produce pays it forward at Dora Erickson Elementary
David Pace
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – As hungry kids struggle to for school lunch throughout East Idaho, Potandon Produce is challenging other businesses to help pay off outstanding school lunch balances at local elementary schools.
“Over Christmas, my sister and I were talking. She’s a former educator, and she had suggested [helping] school lunch programs,” said T.J. Christenson, a Potandon Gives ambassador. “They have negative balances typically, so I reached out to my nephew’s school, Dora Erickson, to see what their negative lunch balance was, and it was a hefty total.”
Potandon launched a community giving initiative last June, seeking to give back and strengthen the community.
“We have an entire list – up and down the valley – of the negative lunch balances,” Christenson said. “So we started with Dora Erickson and donated to them.”
The Potandon Gives program donated $2,500 to cover all of the negative lunch balances (with extra to assist through the end of the year) at the school on Thursday.
Those unpaid school lunches sure add up fast.
In District 91 alone, elementary students and their families owe about $25,000 for school lunches, a number that continues to grow, she said.
“We wanted to be able to ensure that the kids are getting fed and that they have food security,” Christenson said.
She hopes other people and corporations will help step up to the plate.
“We’d love for the community to go out and support their local schools – whether it’s an individual or whether it’s a business, go out, pay off the school lunch balance,” she said. “If it’s the school in your neighborhood, your kids go there, your grandkids go there – go and support the kids.”
In the past nine months, Potandon Gives has donated a total of $74,100 to a variety of youth sports organizations, D.A.R.E., Rocket Club, Business Professionals of America, an eSports team, St. Vincent de Paul, Shepherd’s Inn and Elks Lodge.
Last week, it provided $12,000 total in checks to Dora Erickson Elementary, the Community Food Basket, American Falls High School’s band and first aid buckets at Fairview Elementary.
With so many non-profit organizations in the region, Potandon Gives has not duplicated a donation.
Potandon is one of the top fresh potato and onion marketers in America.
If you would like to assist covering school lunch balances in District 91, you can visit this website on the District’s official page. (You can type in the name of the school you are helping under “Memo.”)