Pacific Eagles with check for $41,962, proceeds from 2025 benefit barbecue to help pay off students lunch debt. ______________________________________________________________________________________
By Pauline Masson –
The Pacific Eagles are at it again, cooking up barbecue and inviting the community to join them in paying off school lunch debt for MVRIII students.
This Saturday Mar. 7, barbecue can be picked up from 11:00 a.m. to 3;00 p.m. or until sold out. Event is at the Eagles Hall, 707 West Congress Street.
This is the seventh year in a row that the Eagles have held this BBQ to benefit the MVRIII school lunch program. To complement the BBQ feed, Jimmy Nantz and Barb Benson will host their traditional pool tournament and silent auction the some house as the BBQ, with funds also going to the lunch debt program..
The popular fundraising extravaganza started in 2018 when Eagle Mike Mueller learned that some students were not eating lunch because they had unpaid lunch debt of $10 or more. The district provided an alternative lunch of milk, fruit and sandwich but some students opted to without lunch rather than let the other students see that they owed the district money.
Mr. Mueller said he couldn’t live with the idea that every kid didn’t eat lunch. He asked his fellow Eagles to do something about it. The Eagles donated $1,000 to be applied to student debt. Over Christmas, a Facebook plea for donations got others to respond. The district received $3,500 in mostly anonymous donations to pay off school lunch debt.
Two months later, the first BBQ was held in February 2019. The event raised $2,457. The following year in 2020 Local donors helped boost decreasing student lunch debt by $7,620.
Last year in 2025, (pictured above) Eagles delivered a check to the district for $41,962.
It wasn’t enough to pay off all the lunch debt, which can reached as high as $70,000, but the school board agreed that the district would find the funds to erase all the debt.
Mr. Mueller, who chairs the Eagles BBQ, said he would like to see the community continue to join the Eagles and other donors to pay off the school lunch debts.
“I hope people will come out and have some barbecue and give us a hand,” he said.
Plates of ribs, pork steak or half a chicken will add $14 to the lunch program. Brat plates cost $10. Meat Only plates are available for $9.
Dan McClain, Eagles bingo chair and chief Eagles booster, said the project has gained wide support from Eagles members and from the community at large.
“People have just come forward and wanted to help with this,” McClain said. “It’s been our privilege to be part of something that not only fills a basic need, but also gains the support of the community.”
