From 55 Kids at One School to 1,600 a Week: Inside the Dade City Nonprofit Built on a First Grader's Lunch Money

A Dade City nonprofit that began with a 7-year-old spending her own lunch money is now sending weekend food home with more than 1,600 children a week across 35 Pasco County schools. Classes resumed Aug. 13, so the Thomas Promise Foundation's packing and Friday deliveries are back on their school-year rhythm, and the foundation just held the biggest fundraiser on its calendar to pay for it.

The origin story is small and local. Brooke Thomas was a first grader at Centennial Elementary School in Dade City when her family noticed her lunch account draining faster than it should. She was buying snacks for classmates who could not buy their own. As she has told it since, she did not really understand how money worked at that age. She just kept saying she would get it.

Her mother, Dianna Thomas, has said she was proud of her daughter and shaken at the same time. This was the town she grew up in, and none of the adults had realized how many kids were going hungry.

The family started the foundation the following year. Executive Director Joseph Simmons says it served 55 children at that one school in year one.

What is actually in the bag

Each weekend bag holds six meals plus snacks, food a child can get to without a stove or an adult. Volunteers pack during the week. The bags go out on Fridays, before the two days when school breakfast and lunch disappear from a kid's schedule. Local reports say the foundation also sends extra bags for younger siblings at home and keeps food moving during holiday breaks and the summer.

The work runs on donations, grants and volunteer hours. Businesses, churches and civic groups can sign up to pack, and the foundation takes individual volunteers too.

The fundraiser, and why it matters to the numbers

The sixth annual Thomas Promise fundraiser was held Saturday, Aug. 15, at the Dan Cannon Auditorium on the Pasco County Fairgrounds, 36722 County Road 52, running from 6 to 11 p.m. with dinner and a concert by the Bellamy Brothers, who have been Dade City's most famous musical export for half a century. Tables sold out ahead of the night, leaving individual tickets only, and the foundation paired the dinner with an online auction.

Dianna Thomas has said the need keeps growing in Dade City and the communities around it, which is why the fundraisers and the grant writing never really stop. As the town grows, she has said, the need grows with it.

By 2021, roughly a decade into the effort, local coverage put the foundation's total past one million meals served.

Where it goes from here

Brooke Thomas is nearly 23 now and still involved. She has said she wants the program to branch into other counties and reach as many kids as it can.

For families who missed Saturday, the ask does not expire with the concert. The foundation needs packers and food donations every week of the school year, and it lists volunteer and donation options on its own site, thethomaspromise.org. The office number for tables, tickets and group volunteering is (813) 782-0000.

Keep up with local coverage at Dade City Community Website, follow us on Facebook, and join the conversation in our Community Forum. For more stories like this one, read our community coverage and our community spotlight features.