December 18, 2019

By Cigi Embry
Communications Director
The Summit Church

Building on a partnership with a local elementary school, The Summit Church paid the debt for every student lunch account in the Lee’s Summit R-7 School District.

Volunteers from The Summit Church have been serving regularly at Lee’s Summit Elementary for more than 15 years. The partnership includes providing reading partners, lunch buddies, funding for rent, utilities, food, etc., as well as meeting the needs of families each Christmas.

In addition to giving gifts, toiletries and paper goods to families at the school this year, The Summit Church asked a simple question: “What if we could do more?”

Daphne Mack, Lee’s Summit Elementary’s School Counselor, served as the lead to find a way for the church to bless families throughout the district.

On the weekend of December 14-15, a special offering was collected from attenders at The Summit Church. The proceeds of that offering provided the $18,950.28 needed to pay the lunch debt for every student in the district.
Rexanne Hill, LSR7’s Executive Director of Student Support, was overjoyed with the impact this will make for families in the district. “This is a blessing for our students and families,” she said, “Thank you is not enough to show how grateful we are for your generosity.”

The Summit Church spends over $200,000 each year to reach out to people in the community and around the world. This year the church’s Summit Lunch Program provided over 12,000 lunches to hungry kids during the summer months. The church also provided groceries to prepare a Thanksgiving meal to 1,800 people and packed over 30,000 meals to be shipped to feeding centers around the world.

“Out of all the things we do to make a difference in our community, meeting the practical needs of families is the closest to the heart of our mission. It’s through our generosity to others that we truly live out Jesus’ instruction to love our neighbors as ourselves,” said Ryan Schreckenghaust, Executive Pastor at The Summit Church.

Christmas is a little brighter for some Lee’s Summit families this year thanks to some people in the community who want to give others a solid foundation to begin a new year.