Church pays for negative lunch balances

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After an uproar on social media due to issues with negative lunch balances at Seward High School, Mercy City Church in Seward and Lincoln paid off all the negative lunch balances in the Seward school district.

A Dec. 16 post on the Seward (Nebraska) Community Chat Facebook page stated a student’s lunch was taken from them and thrown away because of a negative lunch account balance.

Cassius Lee, one of the location leaders at Mercy City’s Seward location, said he didn’t know about the issue when it first happened.

“I haven’t been on social media a whole lot lately,” he said. “That’s where all of the posts were happening.”

Lee said he found out about the situation when a member of the church mentioned it.

“My wife and I were in the back answering questions for anyone, and that’s when a member of the church came up and told us about it,” he said.

When he heard the situation, Lee said his initial reaction was sadness.

“My heart was hurting,” he said. “It’s not the kid’s fault.”

After learning about the lunch balance debacle, Lee said he knew there was something the church could do. He decided to bring it up to the church’s leadership team. Lee said the leadership team is made up of head pastors and a team of five individuals who are the directional team.

“Without hesitation, our head pastor Matt (Erikson) said to figure out the balance and make sure that it gets taken care of,” Lee said. “It wasn’t necessarily something where we had to put a bunch of minds together. It was just a reaction of a church full of generous people.”

“I thought it was a very nice gesture for the students,” said Josh Fields, Seward Public Schools superintendent. “I appreciate the support they give the school district.”

Lee said the process of paying the lunch balances was fairly quick, with the church deciding to pay the balances and the school district getting them the information the same day. He also said the church was able to have the check to them within the next few days.

The negative balances ended up costing Mercy City a little under $1,200. Lee said the amount covers all the negative balances at this point in time.

Lee said the church was happy to cover the negative balances. He said he’s glad he’s able to show families the love of Jesus.

“We exist to connect people to the house of God and the heart of God,” he said. “My prayer for it was for people to realize that Jesus is out there and loves them. We’re also called to love people, and we found that this was an opportunity for us to love people.”

Along with showing people the love of Jesus, Lee said he would encourage others to give back if they are called by God.

“If you feel like this is something that the Lord has placed on your heart, respond to it,” he said. “We’re called to love people, and if you have the means to love people in a small or big way, I would encourage everyone to respond.”

Lee also said he would like to thank the Seward School district for helping the church get the information it needed.

“Thank you for allowing us to come alongside the district and help us help these kids,” he said.