SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Some parents in one school district won’t have to worry about paying for school lunches this coming school year, thanks to an anonymous donor.
That district is Oldham-Ramona-Rutland.
“This individual reached out to me, introducing themselves, saying they really wanted to do something to help the students of our district,” Oldham Ramona Rutland superintendent Dawn Hoeke said.
The man, who wanted to remain anonymous, donated enough money to pay for every elementary students’ school lunch for the entire year.
Don: K-5 how much money did he donate?
Dawn: $45,000.
Superintendent Dawn Hoeke says that generous donation is going to go a long way and says something about their school district that has 99 elementary students.
“It’s wonderful because it makes me realize there are so many people out there who truly do want to help our kids and see our district as important enough, valuable enough to donate that kind of money,” Hoeke said.
Don: How does this make you feel as a parent when somebody does something like this?
Rachel: It’s so amazing to have someone do this for our community and for our district, as a parent it’s really reassuring that my child is going to have a healthy, nutritious lunch every day, consistently every day,”
“It’s just one less thing that’s on our minds that we have to budget for and I think it’s going to help a lot of families in our district.”
Along with the $45,000 donation, the man also wrote a letter challenging others to do something for the kids as well.
He wrote, “I hope others decide that they would also like to make life better for our future leaders that they may also consider a donation to this fund in the future.”
“Will it catch fire, the hope of this donor is that it will; that he’s leading the pack that others will want to step up and help our schools,” Hoeke said.
“I just don’t think we can say thank you enough, this is such an act of kindness it’s a wonderful thing,” Rachel Waagmeester said.
