Overland Park mom takes a bite out of lunchroom debt

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (KCTV) - The Chiefs won the Super Bowl but one Overland Park mom is proving that Chiefs Kingdom is about much more than football.

Annie Stowe, who founded Annie’s Barn, decided to celebrate the Chiefs’ success by paying off thousands of dollars of school lunch debt in the metro.

When the Chiefs won the AFC Championship game, Stowe made yard signs that said: “Get in winners. We’re going winning.” At first, she just ordered 100 of them. She didn’t know if anyone would actually buy them.

Then, they sold out within 24 hours.

So, she ordered 400 more and decided to put the proceeds toward eliminating Pawnee Elementary students’ lunch debt.

After handing off a check for more than $2,000, she wanted to do it all over again.

On Friday, she got to make a call to Mission Valley 330 in Eskridge, Kansas.

“Well, we can pay that off,” she said.

“That would be amazing!” the person on the other end of the line said. “Our students would be so lucky.”

“It’s awesome because that’s a really tiny school in rural Kansas,” Stowe said. “It feels really good.”

After that phone call, there was still a little bit of money left over. She’s going to give it to a school within Olathe Public Schools.

“I love the idea of ‘Out of the Red’ Friday,” she said. “I think we’ll do it again next year, and I already have people committed to me that they will be a part of it.”

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