Taylor woman helps pay off outstanding school lunch balances
Isabella Tebeau loves life. She enjoys her job as a barista at Curbside Coffee Shop in Taylor. She loves her customers, and she loves children. So when she saw a certain Facebook post earlier in December, it made her think.
“Someone wrote, ‘If you want to do something good, pay off a school lunch account,’” said Tebeau.
She wasted no time. She contacted Taylor I.S.D. and found out the outstanding school lunch balance for all schools was $1,200.
“I made a donation box, and I asked my friends next door at the Texas Beer Company would they allow me to put a box in here too and they said yes,” said Tebeau.
The money began pouring in. In ten days, she reached her goal.
“When I came to Taylor I.S.D., another gentleman collected $276, which brought our total to over $1,800,” said Tebeau.
“The remainder will go to pay off unpaid lunches in the future as they come up,” said Tim Crown, Taylor I.S.D. community liaison.
If a child doesn't have lunch money, the district allows the child to charge up to five regular hot lunches. After that, they get an alternate lunch: a cheese sandwich, a veggie, a fruit, and some milk.
“We do have a free and reduced lunch program. A lot of families qualify for that, about 65 percent qualify for that program. But still there are things that come up for families that are not on that program, and it makes it difficult to gather up that extra dollar or two,” said Crow.
“This is not a story about me collecting money. It's a story about a community showing up when there's a need,” said Tebeau.
Good nutrition is essential to a student's success. It's one less thing Taylor kids will have to worry about before beginning their next semester. It's a Christmas gift, that was Taylor-made.