Pensacola businessman pays off entire school lunch debt for Escambia County schools

Annie Blanks | Pensacola News Journal

A Pensacola businessman paid off the entire school lunch debt for the Escambia County School District after reading about the district's school lunch debt in an article online in the Pensacola News Journal.

Stephen Simpson, the owner of S2 Groups, an asset management company, wrote a check for the entire negative lunch balance for Escambia County—totaling $2,564.47—and gave it to the school district on Friday morning.

Teri Tucker, the director of S2 Groups and someone who has worked with Simpson for 20 years, said the company always tries to do something for kids around the holidays and felt that this would be a way to affect many families at once.

Tucker delivered the check to the school district on behalf of Simpson on Friday morning.

"We were actually shocked when we got down there and there were 28 pages of kids' names," she said. "I mean, $2,500 to affect that many people is just an amazing opportunity.

"It's the end of the year, school's out now, and we had this opportunity to clear off this debt for a lot of families so they don't have to worry about something coming after Christmas break," Tucker added. "Hopefully, they'll be able to get the word out to these families so they're not worried about it over the holidays."

The story: Escambia, Santa Rosa schools have more than $14,000 in lunch debt. Here's how they deal with it:

Tucker said Simpson read about the school lunch debt on the News Journal's website on Thursday. Escambia had a negative lunch balance of $2,564.47 across 19 schools, and Santa Rosa has a current balance of $12,122.69.

Tucker said Simpson was also inspired by another article that ran in the News Journal this week, about a Gulf Breeze businessman, Mike Esmond, who paid off the past-due utility bills for 36 Gulf Breeze families for Christmas.

Generosity at Christmas: 'Generosity of this wonderful community:' Gulf Breeze man pays 36 families' utility bills for Christmas

Escambia County's food service director Jalenna Davis said she was thrilled to learn the balance had been paid.

"I was beyond excited to hear of the generous donation made this morning to assist families that had accrued a negative balance," Davis said in an email to the News Journal. "As we strive to ensure all students receive nutritious meals throughout the school day, I would like to remind families that if your financial situation changes at any time throughout the year, you can and should apply for meal benefits. The application for meal benefits can be found on the school district website.

Escambia County Superintendent Malcolm Thomas told the News Journal he was floored by S2 Groups' gesture, especially ahead of the holidays.

"This is just another tribute to the kind of community that we live in," Thomas said. "People look for a way to help out, and this is a great Christmas story. We've dealt with school lunch debt before, but so far as I know in our history, we have never had anyone step forward to clear the entire debt."

Annie Blanks can be reached at ablanks@pnj.com or 850-435-8632.