When life gives you lemons...
MAUREEN DOLAN/Press Amiah Van Hill, 6, smiles Thursday at the Coeur d’Alene School District’s Nutrition Services Office. Amiah was there to turn in donations she collected to pay down school lunch debts for families in the district.
Amiah Van Hill, 6, poses next to her lemonade stand, where business is good. Courtesy photo
By MAUREEN DOLAN
Staff Writer
COEUR d’ALENE — She’s just 6 years old, but Amiah Van Hill is on a campaign to sweeten up a sour situation, and it’s working.
This summer, the Hayden Meadows second-grader opened Lemonade 4 Lunch, a stand accepting donations in exchange for an ice-cold glass of the lemony, sweet drink.
She’s raising money to help forgive school lunch debts for families in the Coeur d’Alene School District.
“I like that people are donating to the families that really, really need it,” Amiah said.
At the end of the school year in June, the school district was owed $23,400.
Amiah was at the school district’s nutrition services office Thursday to drop off a recent round of donations. She climbed onto a chair at the office, pulled $167 in bills and change from a small pail marked “donations,” and placed the money on the counter.
That brings Amiah’s total donations from the lemonade stand to $533 so far.
She began her fundraising efforts after her mom, Rachel Van Hill, shared with her a news story about Jeff Lew, a man who began a successful GoFundMe campaign earlier this year to raise money online to pay off school lunch debts in Seattle. Lew is now raising money to forgive all school lunch debts in the state of Washington.
Lew learned that when a child does not have money for lunch, schools in Seattle generally provide it and then track the debt and send invoices to the parents.
The Coeur d’Alene School District has a similar policy.
“If kids come through, we allow them to charge their lunch,” said Ed Ducar, the district’s director of nutrition services. “We don’t want to take food away.”
Rachel said Amiah wondered, after reading about Jeff Lew, if her school had a lunch debt. They soon learned that Hayden Meadows had an unpaid balance of $40.55.
“My daughter said ‘I don’t know what a GoFundMe is … I think I could raise that money if I had a lemonade stand,’” Rachel said.
They set up the stand at the end of the family’s driveway.
“Within just an hour she was able to raise well over the $40 to wipe out that debt,” Rachel said. “She had so much fun she wanted to do more.”
Ducar said he plans to work with the school board this year to update the district’s lunch charging policy. He said they plan to provide more education to encourage income-eligible families to apply for lunch aid.
“We’re going to remind families that all school meals are confidential. Nobody knows if a child is receiving free or reduced lunches,” Ducar said.
Because of the overwhelming support for Amiah’s stand, Rachel also created a GoFundMe campaign. The donations collected through the page were at $1,493 on Thursday evening. Those dollars are in addition to the money Amiah collects at the lemonade stand.
The money given to the school district is being used to first pay off debts for families whose children are receiving reduced-price lunches based on their income, and are still struggling to pay for lunches. “We want to give it to the people that need it the most,” Rachel said.
For those who want to donate, Amiah may be manning her lemonade stand late this afternoon near Honeysuckle Beach on Honeysuckle Avenue at Forest Hills.
Donations can also be made by visiting gofundme.com/lemonade-4-lunch.