The Houston County Bar Association: Donating toward the Houston County Schools meal debt

Tuesday, members of the Houston County Bar Association met with Director of the Houston County School Nutrition Program, Meredith Potter, to present a check in the amount of $1,500, donated to help clear the school system’s student meal debt.

LaToya Bell, the current president of the Houston County Bar, explained that due to COVID-19, the association has had no face-to-face meetings. Bell informed that this year, in lieu of those meetings, the association decided to redirect their funds to community service projects.

“We originally thought, in August, we would do like a school supply drive…then we were made aware of the lunch debt that Houston County schools had, over the 19 schools and 200 children. We donated $1,500. We nearly wiped out the debt, and I think the entire debt has been paid now,” Bell said.

Potter said that the Houston County School Nutrition Program was grateful for the donation, and that when school ended earlier this year in March, there were many students who had meal debts, which she later clarified was over $11,000.

“Many of those students’ parents had reduced income or had lost their jobs, so we were just looking for ways to ease the burden on the families in the community. The Bar Association stepped up and was able to erase the debt for those families, and so coming back to this school year, they don’t have that worry on their plate when they come through the line,” Potter noted, adding that when schools closed, the focus of the nutrition program was to feed the kids, and with a waiver from USDA, they were able to feed the families of the county at no cost. As school began to pick back up, Potter said they refocused attention to the debt and began working on ways to “ease the burden.”

Bell mentioned the importance of these types of actions in the community as making certain to let people know that lawyers care about their communities.

“A lot of times, we’re given a bad rap as lawyers of all different kinds…and so we want to let the community know that we care about our children. And because we care about our children, we care about our community as a whole because children become adults, and if you set a good foundation, then we have a good future,” Bell clarified.

Potter expressed that the donation portrays the message that we are all in this together, stating, “Everyone is experiencing some hardships of some sort due to the pandemic, and the fact that we have some organizations willing to reach out and help others only supports the fact that we live in a great community.”

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