Heavens to Betsy – Eagles’ Sky High Enthusiasm Raises $41,905 in One Day to Pay Kids’ School Lunch Debt

_{Eagle Mike Mueller, seated right with sun glasses, inspired Pacific Eagles Aerie 3842 to pay kids school lunch debt, starting six years ago. Last week their successful barbecue fundraiser raised $41,905 in one day for the program.} ________________________________________________________________________________________

By Pauline Masson – 

The Pacific Eagles program that changed the Meramec Valley R-III school lunch debt program has reached a new high.

Six years after Pacific Eagles Aerie 3842 took steps to help MVR-III students pay off their school lunch debts, their sky high enthusiasm has catapulted the effort into the stratosphere for the 2025-26 school year, adding $41,905 to the program. 

It all got started when Pacific Eagle Mike Mueller learned in 2019 that some kids weren’t eating school lunch because they owed more than $10 for previous lunches and were too embarrassed to eat the substitute lunch the district provided.

The district lunch program at that time was to substitute, the regular lunch for fruit and sandwich for students whose debt exceeded the limit. Many kids, especially the super savvy high schoolers, opted to not eat lunch at all rather than stand out in front of their fellow students indicting they couldn’t pay for lunch.

The idea of kids being embarrassed to not eat lunch sent Mr. Mueller and his fellow Eagles into a frenzy. 

“Okay, if that is how it is, we need to do something about it,” Mr. Mueller said.

As a response to his appeal the Eagles launched a one-day barbecue fundraiser to help pay for kids lunches and asked the community to pitch in.

Jim Nantz organized a pool tournament with all proceeds going to the lunch debt project. Eagles sold 50-50 tickets which added half to the projects. Barbecue chefs charred up batches of pork steaks and hot dogs, which they advertised. And the community turned out to help.

In one day, the Aerie raised $5,649, which then Eagles president Dan McClain delivered to the school board. The Eagles donations were distributed to every school in the district, based on the number of students in the school.

“You have to thank the community. They always turns out.” Mr. McClain said. “When they knew the event was to pay for school lunches some people just dropped by just to make a donation.”

Mr. Mueller and fellow Eagles never wanted to embarrass parents who were juggling bills and couldn’t pay their kid’s lunch debts, or school officials and cafeteria workers who were called on to deny students a hot lunch. They just wanted to pitch in and try to fix it.

After the Eagles made their first donation and got the community involved, the school board took measures to change the entire school meal program. Yielding to Mr. Mueller’s dismay about the substitute lunches and decision to skip lunch, the school board decided that all students were served the same hot meal regardless of their ability to pay. 

Which isn’t the same as getting free lunch. Students remained on the hooks for every lunch they ate. So the Eagles vowed to keep raising funds for school lunch.

When the 2022-23 school year started, every school building in the district had a positive balance in its school meals accounts, thanks  to the Eagles and community fundraising effort.

But the Eagles and school district leaders knew a simple truth. School lunch is every day and once all the donated funds were applied to meal accounts, debt would  again starts to add up.

But nothing succeeds like success and this year the Eagles, the community and some anonymous community boosters took the school lunch program to legendary status.

Mr. Nantz held his pool tournament. Eagles chefs cooked up a huge barbecue that citizens bought, Eagles sold 50/50 tickets. And two anonymous donors showed up and handed the Eagles checks for $10,000 each.  The one-day extravaganza raised $41,905.05 for the lunch program.

“We have to admit some surprise,” Mr. McClain. “The guys and gals in the Aerie are always willing to work and the community likes our barbecue but this year’s total gave us all a pretty warm feeling.”