Helena volunteers sell scarecrows to cut $154,000 school lunch debt

A five-woman Helena volunteer group is trying to shave down nearly $154,000 in unpaid school meal balances by selling handmade scarecrows built from thrifted clothes and PVC pipe frames.

The ScareLadies are working out of co-president Tracy Halubka’s garage, collecting castoff clothing, assembling the scarecrows, and selling them at local events, including the farmers market. The nonprofit has also drawn donations of materials and cash, and it is aiming to raise $5,000 by the end of the school year. That would still leave a large gap, but it would put real money toward a debt Helena Public Schools says is the highest Robert Worthy has seen.

Worthy, the district’s food services director, has said the size of the balance makes the problem harder to ignore. The business office reports the outstanding amount tied to free and reduced meals is nearly $154,000, a figure that helps explain why the ScareLadies have framed their effort as more than a feel-good project. President Sue Faulk said feeding students is a basic part of helping them succeed, and said the group wants to help kids who should not be burdened by circumstances they did not create.

Helena Public Schools no longer turns students away from lunch when they cannot pay, so children continue eating even if family accounts fall behind. But the district’s meal-charge policy also shows how the issue can still carry consequences. The policy says the district recognizes that students may forget or lose lunch money, or have unpaid meal balances, and says it tries to treat all students with dignity even as the debt creates a financial burden. It also says students eligible for free meals do not have a meal account.

For older students, the stakes can become more severe. Seniors who leave school with unpaid debt can risk not receiving their diplomas, turning a lunch balance into a graduation problem. That is one reason the ScareLadies say they are trying to direct the first wave of fundraising toward seniors nearing graduation, where even a modest amount of help can make the difference between a lingering bill and a clean finish.

The Helena effort comes as unpaid meal debt has become a broader Montana problem. Livingston Public Schools had about $30,000 in lunch debt, Bozeman about $70,000, and Belgrade more than $116,000. Federal guidance from the United States Department of Agriculture requires school meal programs to have a meal-charge policy, and Montana lawmakers have also debated whether the state should help cover free and reduced-price meals. In Helena, a small group of volunteers is doing what it can to make a dent in a problem that is much bigger than a garage, a farmers market booth, or one handmade scarecrow at a time.