NJ businessman tried to pay Cherry Hill student lunch food debts

Remember the tuna fish lunch shaming flap in Cherry Hill a couple of months ago? The school district’s policy was that children whose families had outstanding lunch balances of $10 or more were given tuna fish sandwiches instead of a hot lunch until they got their account current.

Now comes word that a businessman offered to pay off all of the students’ lunch debts but was turned down. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Steve Ravitz, who owns two Shop Rite stores in Cherry Hill, made the offer in September after the school district got national attention for their policy. Ravitz told the Inquirer that he never heard back from the district, so he gave up, while the school district just says they are not accepting donations because it wouldn’t address the problem of families that are capable of paying but do not. The total debt for the last school year was a little over $14,000.

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