Masonic Lodge, Grimco donate $4,500 to School Lunch Relief Fund

By Roxie Murphy, Staff Writer
Posted 3/1/23

The Owensville Masonic Lodge and local businesses joined together on Feb. 24 to donate $4,500 to Owensville Middle School’s (OMS) Lunch Relief Program to pay off overdue lunch accounts.

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Masonic Lodge, Grimco donate $4,500 to School Lunch Relief Fund

Posted

The Owensville Masonic Lodge and local businesses joined together on Feb. 24 to donate $4,500 to Owensville Middle School’s (OMS) Lunch Relief Program to pay off overdue lunch accounts.

Family/school liaisons Sam Mangrum and Liz Bruemmer accepted the donation from Mason members Cletus Rademacher and John Behrens and Grimco employees Shaun Christopher and Daniel Kleinheider on behalf of OMS.

“This is going to school lunches, to pay off overdue balances,” Mangrum said. “It is needed in the community.”

Mangrum said they will probably wait until May to distribute the funds into accounts.

“We monitor all of it and make sure it is a family who needs it,” Mangrum explained. “This is my  favorite kind of donation and it helps a lot of families.”

Many families are struggling to return to paying for lunches since the end of the pandemic.

“For two years no one paid for lunches,” Mangrum said. “It’s been an adjustment — one lunch is between $2.30 and $2.60.”

The Masonic Lodge mission is to help childern, according to Behrens. The group raises local funds that have the opportunity to be matched by the Masonic Lodge of Missouri.

“Owensville Masonic Lodge 624 is helping children in need with the support of the community and businesses like Grimco,” Behrens said.

The organization partners with many local businesses and fund-raise throughout the year to be able to assist with the Lunch Relief Program and coat donation in the winter.

Future spring fund raisers include: an April 22 breakfast at Springfest and a May 13 barbeque.

“Fund raisers like this onen and other help us purchase coats and more for kids,” Rademacher said.

The Ozark Shrine Club in Owensville presented the Shriners Children’s Hospital in St. Louis with a $9,000 donation in December 2022.