Cranberry Toyota dealership pays school lunch debt totaling more than $22,000

A Toyota dealership will wipe out more than $22,000 of student lunch debt that’s accrued in a Western Pennsylvania school district.

Baierl Toyota in Cranberry presented a check Friday for $22,181.47 to the Ellwood City Area School District to pay off the debt.

“This is just a great thing for our kids and families,” said Superintendent Joe Mancini. “It was a total surprise and an enormous amount of generosity to our district. It’s a huge burden off our parents and kids. It removes that stress.”

Regular prices are $2.05 for elementary and $2.20 for middle and high school students, Mancini said. About half of Ellwood’s students are eligible for a free or reduced lunch. The past-due amount in Ellwood City covers about 11,000 meals that weren’t paid for.

“We just wanted to help school districts that were close to home,” said Baierl General Manager Michael Hull.

The dealership looked into what the needs were in the region. They chose to tackle the Ellwood City district’s lunch debt and to help two other Beaver County school districts that have programs worthy of support, Hull said.

The money comes from Toyota’s corporate grassroots fund that supplies money for dealers to support their communities, Hull said.

“They ask that we help causes that are close by the store and that can make an impact to the community,” he said.

Ellwood City, which has an enrollment of about 1,600 students who live in Lawrence and Beaver counties, was chosen because of the size of it’s overdue lunch bills, Hull said.

The district uses an electronic billing system and the overdue amounts build up, Mancini said. Overdue debts accrue from year-to-year. If left unpaid, the district tries to collect it when a student graduates, but the bills often aren’t paid, he said.

Baierl also donated $20,000 to New Brighton Area School District for its Weekend Backpack Program that will provide needy students with a backpack loaded with food to ensure they can eat over the weekend.

“We are beyond thrilled,” New Brighton Superintendent Joe Guarino said. “It truly proves they are the community partners they want to be.”

The donation will allow the district to begin its backpack program soon to make sure its students are fed, even when they’re not in school, Guarino said.

Another $20,000 went to the emergency fund at Big Beaver Falls Area School District that helps the homeless student population there.