Kicker raises negative lunch balance funds

n Harry Losh has raised more than $2,600.

Bud Sullins/Special to the Herald-Leader Siloam Springs senior Harry Losh boosts an extra point after a Siloam Springs touchdown during a game earlier this season. Losh is raising money to help pay for students' negative lunch balances in the Siloam Springs School District.
Bud Sullins/Special to the Herald-Leader Siloam Springs senior Harry Losh boosts an extra point after a Siloam Springs touchdown during a game earlier this season. Losh is raising money to help pay for students' negative lunch balances in the Siloam Springs School District.

School can be hard for a lot of kids. Having a negative meal balance makes it even harder. One Siloam Springs High School senior is working to make a difference in the lives of students with negative lunch balances by creating a fundraiser to reduce the number of deficient lunch balances throughout the district.

Harry Losh does not have a negative school lunch balance, but he knows people who do. Losh, who is a kicker for the Siloam Springs Panthers football team, has been taking pledges from people to donate money to negative school lunches for every point-after-touchdown or field goal that he scores for the remainder of the season.

Losh started his fundraiser on Sept. 30 when conference play began with a goal of $2,500. He set up a page on GoFundMe where people can donate to his cause. As of Tuesday's presstime, Losh had raised $2,605.

Losh's passion for students with negative school lunch balances is one that he has had for at least a year. Losh remembers paying for a kid's lunch last year.

"He was just behind me and I knew the previous day (he was told that he had a negative balance and could not get the meal that he wanted) I saw him doing the same thing so I just paid for him," Losh said.

Losh came up with the idea for his campaign when he remembered that Casey's raised money to help with this issue in January of 2018. While Losh does not own a retail giant, he is a varsity kicker, so he put his skills on the football field to use helping his fellow students. On the season he has made 18 of 19 extra points and two field goals.

Jason Carter, director of food services for the Siloam Springs School District, said plenty of adults have donated to alleviate negative lunch balances, however Losh is the first student to donate.

"This community has been supportive of the program and school," Carter said. "Once a week or every other week someone calls to donate money."

Another change to how negative school lunch balances are handled was the passing of Arkansas Act 428 on March 12, which prohibits the shaming of students over their negative balances.

Carter said that instead of having kids publicly dump their tray and pick up a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the cashiers in the cafeteria let the students go through with their meal and the parents are notified by the school via email about the deficient balance.

General News on 10/30/2019