SMYRNA, Ga. — Cobb County students who live in Smryna will be returning to school Monday with their entire lunch debt paid off.
A new nonprofit formed during the pandemic is now working on getting kids started back to school on the right foot.
Support Smyrna was originally started to help feed senior citizens sheltering in place at the height of the pandemic. However, the program ended up helping more people than anyone ever imagined.
"I was totally blown away. Because never have I had anything given to me," resident Betsy Cooper said.
Cooper has lived in Smyrna her whole life but never had a police officer at her house until Lt. Louis Defense dropped off a grocery store gift card during the pandemic.
"It's important, it's extremely important to us, as police officers, in this climate, to stay connected to people we serve," Lt. Defense added.
The police department teamed up with Mayor Derek Norton to try and help people in March of last year when everyone went into lockdown.
"The need at that time, the beginning of the pandemic, was feeding people, people who never thought they would need assistance," Mayor Norton explained.
Norton put the call out to people who lived in Smyrna to give what they could to help their neighbors.
"If you donated $25, you got a yard sign, so I ordered 50 yard signs, thinking we would raise a few thousand dollars. Fast forward to the end of the program, it's still going, but we have 2,000 yard signs and raised over $175,000," he added.
The group gave away thousands in gift cards but still had thousands left over.
In order to stay focused on why they started the program, Support Smyrna agreed to wipe out the lunch debt of students who lived in the city, which matched their mission.
"I can't imagine thinking about how am I going to take care of that debt. So now, they don't have to," Norton said.
Support Smyrna donated nearly $8,000 to clear the debt of students at seven schools in the city.
"I went to every single school in Smyrna and delivered that check. And that was a really proud moment, to be able to clear that debt and do that for our kids," Norton said.
He says it's a proud moment for everyone who supports Smyrna.
A nonprofit was started to keep helping people in the city with the money raised for Support Smyrna.
An additional $12,000 has already been raised, and they're figuring out how they can help next.