A $1 million dollar donation erased lunch debt for more than 7,000 kids in Georgia.

The Arby’s Foundation, a charitable arm of the fast food chain, made the contribution after City Schools of Decatur (CSD) announced it would serve cheese sandwiches and milk to students with outstanding lunch debt until their balances were paid in full beginning this Friday, Feb. 2.

“The Arby’s Foundation wholeheartedly believes that we should have reliable access to meals for children,” Arby’s brand president Rita Patel told reporters Friday.

“Our purpose is really making sure that we continue to fight childhood hunger but that we’re also supporting the communities where these children and families are thriving. So that’s where we spend a lot of our energy and we make sure that we do it, again, nationwide, and we leverage our franchisee partners to come along on that journey with us.”

CSD in a statement said it was grateful for the donation.

“All past balances have been forgiven,” the district wrote in a statement.

“CSD has less than a 10 percent poverty rate and eligible families continue to receive regular meals through the National Lunch Program. We have also finalized agreements with organizations to provide additional assistance to individual families experiencing financial hardships. As a public school district, we often have to make difficult decisions. However, we remain committed to providing healthy meal options for all students while working diligently to proactively prevent future debt reoccurrences,” the statement said.

Lunch debt is an ongoing problem for students in America, especially since pandemic-era federal funding for free meals to all students expired in 2022. The Education Data Initiative estimates 30.4 million students carry a combined student lunch debt of $262 million annually.

Three Democratic senators attempted to address the issue nationwide last year. In September, Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont introduced the School Lunch Debt Cancellation Act of 2023. The bill would require the Secretary of Agriculture to cancel all existing school meal debt within 180 days of its passage using funds from the Commodity Credit Corporation. But the legislation has been stalled in the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and has yet to be advanced.

In Virginia, lawmakers are pushing a state bill that would guarantee free breakfast and lunch to public elementary and secondary school students under two federal programs. Democratic Sen. Danica Roem introduced Senate Bill 283 earlier this month. The state’s second largest school district ended the 2022-23 school year with almost $350,000 in school meal debt and has relied on donations from teachers and community members to help settle it. 

The Arby’s Foundation’s most recent contribution will cover 7,413 students in four public school districts in the metro Atlanta area —  City Schools of Decatur, Cobb, Henry and Fulton County School Districts. The remaining amount, about $800,000, will be distributed among 762 schools nationwide to help over 47,000 students, the foundation said.