As a child's brain is developing, food is crucial to the process. Not having the proper food and nutrients can affect many things including a child's mood, academic performance, ability to concentrate, and physical health. We want our students to succeed and live a happy, healthy life. Food security and nutrition can play a big part in this and we aim to make sure our students have all the tools they need to succeed whether they're learning in the classroom or their own homes. Thanks to the community and Kurt Lee Wheeler, we're able to work towards having the resources needed to feed our students. 

Several of our award-winning schools around the county are considered Title I schools, meaning 50% of the students attending school there are eligible for free or reduced lunch because the earnings for their households are at or below the poverty threshold. These meals are subsidized by the Department of Agriculture on a Federal level. Meals for those students (almost 4,000 of them per week) continued even when schools had to close their doors to protect our children from the spread of the virus, but the Federal funding was not made available during the week we were calendared to be closed for spring break. 

Our Superintendent and elected School Board members made the decision to continue to provide meals to these children because they believed supporting them was the right thing to do. Without Federal dollars, they sought funding and support from our community to help cover the $100,000 expense. Each Monday, those students are served 4 breakfasts and 5 lunches to sustain them for the week. Since schools closed for virus protection, more than 14,000 meals continued to be distributed across 12 school sites, and partner locations. The cost to feed a student for the week is $26.25. The call for help went out, and Cherokee County did not disappoint as several clubs and businesses stepped up, and even individuals participated.