BOARDMAN — Youngstown resident Wanda Vaught has launched a Thanksgiving fundraiser to pay off student lunch debts across all six Boardman schools — three elementary, one intermediate, one junior high and one high school.

A 1984 graduate of Boardman High School, Vaught has a son who graduated from Boardman, and is now on active duty in the Army. Vaught said she remembers being a single mom and struggling to pay her son’s cafeteria bill.

“It was always past due. But these times we are going through now, people are struggling even more,” Vaught said.

She said she wanted to help those in need but wasn’t sure how. She turned to her faith and prayed for God to tell her what to do. The next night, she saw on the evening news a story about a father from another state who had raised $800 toward past due lunch bills at his son’s school via a GoFundMe campaign and was intrigued.

GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for everything from accidents and illnesses to celebrations, personal creative projects, charities and other good causes. To raise money on GoFundMe, participants create a public fundraiser page and share their fundraiser link with friends, family and the larger community. Participants are encouraged to use social media platforms to create awareness for their campaign.

Encouraged by the results that father had with GoFundMe, Vaught decided to do the same. She started the campaign with a $100 donation of her own and hopes to raise $3,000 total by Thanksgiving to give each school $500 toward unpaid lunch balances. The fund was at $200 as of Sunday evening.

There is a long-standing tradition of alumni donating to Boardman Schools to help pay off lunch debt. Such donations go to the “The Angel Fund.”

Natalie Winkle, food service director for Boardman Local Schools, said, “We started The Angel Fund a few years ago as a way to help with student lunch debt. Anyone who chooses to can donate to the fund. Once the student gets to the point of not being able to charge any additional meals, which is $13.75 in debt, the meal program locks out the purchase and at that point we turn to The Angel Fund to pay for the meal for the child.”

The Food Service Department then contacts the child’s parent and asks the parent to send money to cover the debt.

“Sometimes they will send in the money to pay for their child, and sometimes they can’t. If that is the case, we go back to the Angel Fund to make sure the child can continue to get meals,” Winkle said.

Winkle noted they are grateful for the Angel Fund and the donors, but “we can only do so much.”

“Boardman greatly appreciates these gestures from alumni and residents who have contributed over the years to the Angel Fund to help pay school lunch debt,” said Amy Radinovic, spokesperson for the school district.

Those wanting to make a contribution to help pay off student lunch debt can go to the GoFundMe site and search for Vaught’s page: Help Boardman Kids with Lunch Bills.