DARCARS donated $230,000 to cover more than 80,000 meals for Montgomery County Public Schools students.
The donation will cancel two years of meal debt for families who get free and reduced-price meals (FARMs), according to MCPS.
“Addressing lunch debt is not a charity, it’s an investment in our shared economic future,” said Jamie Darvish, owner of DARCARS Automotive Group and DARCARS Toyota, during a presentation Monday in the school board meeting room in Rockville.
So far during this school year, MCPS has gained more than $217,000 in student meal debt. Since 2023, the total debt is higher than $1.36 million. This debt has accumulated not just from FARMs families but includes others who have not paid.
According to MCPS, meal prices are $1.30 for breakfast, $2.55 for elementary lunch, and $2.80 for middle/high school lunch.
More than half of MCPS students have received FARMs.
There are nearly 160,000 total students in the school system, noted Superintendent Thomas Taylor, Ed.D.
“If half of them have experience with our free and reduced meal program, that means that we have more students living in poverty than the District of Columbia has students,” Taylor said. He called it “a very uncomfortable statistic for Montgomery County.”
Grace Rivera-Oven, school board president and founder/CEO of The Upcounty Hub, said she “cried out of gratitude and joy” when she got the news about the donation. She grew up in Montgomery County and had FARMs as a child — “It is my dream that one day we have universal meals not just in Montgomery County, but we have universal meals in the state of Maryland.”
Rockville Mayor Monique Ashton, who also had FARMs as a child, thinks the need is even higher than 50% of students — “there are people who are afraid to apply for help.”
“If you’re worried about your next meal, you can’t possibly concentrate to figure out the answer to the next problem,” said County Councilmember Andrew Friedson. “You have one problem, and that problem is what are you going to eat.”
“These are the kind of problems that kids should not be dealing with,” said County Executive Marc Elrich, a former schoolteacher. “They are not socially and emotionally prepared to deal with the question of why am I hungry.”
MCPS served more than 18 million meals last year.
“Students who are healthy and supported today become the workforce, the leaders, the innovators — and the car buyers — of tomorrow,” Darvish said, getting some laughs.
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