Chobani has announced that it has donated funds to cover $77,000 in unpaid school lunch debt for students in Warwick, R.I.
Television station WJAR, the NBC affiliate in Providence, R.I., reported about Chobani’s actions to help bring a solution to the highly publicized situation for the district.
“The last thing that kids should worry about today is if there’s a warm lunch for them at school — and the shame they might feel if their classmates realize they can’t afford a school lunch,” Chobani noted in a press release, adding that they are working “to bring attention to the national crisis of food insecurity among students” who attend Warwick Public Schools.
The company also is pledging to donate yogurt to the surrounding community.
While Warwich’s School Department planned to serve only sun butter and jelly sandwiches to students who owed lunch money, Angelica Penta, a disappointed local restaurant owner, tried to donate funds to the district to help.
But the School Department turned down the money, saying that it “was not in the position to single out or identify specific students that should be selected for a reduction in their lunch debt while excluding others.”
Chobani’s benevolence will take care of all that. And it will ensure that students continue to eat hot meals at the district — at least for the foreseeable future.
