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Subscribe to RSSA Pennsylvania woman who provides free lunches to hungry kids is told she can't run the charity in her neighborhood. WCAU's Tracy Davidson reports.
Angela Prattis didn’t expect to cause such a big fuss as the neighborhood lunch lady, but in the face of being shut down by her local government, she said she is overwhelmed by the support from her southeast Pennsylvania community — including rivals at township hall.
“I never expected any of this to happen and I am just so surprised,” Prattis told NBC News. “I didn’t think this would be as big as it is.”
Donations have been pouring in to help the mother of four whose operation, funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and administered by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, was threatened by township regulations last week.
Township officials required Prattis to get a variance if she wanted to keep her program alive at 1437 Powell Road.
If she didn’t comply?
“I would be fined $600 daily or shut down,” she said.
Bill Pisarek, the Chester Township business manager, said Prattis’s operation was zoned residential and therefore needed a variance to offer free lunches. Pisarek told NBC10Philadelphia.com she could apply for a variance if she wanted to stay in business of volunteering.
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“We’re not here to go after her, to hurt her, to take money from her or to prevent her from feeding kids that need the food,” Pisarek told NBC10Philadelphia.com.
Prattis said she didn’t have $1,000 needed to file for the variance, but a local lawyer stepped up to help with her with the process, she said.
She said the township council also has waived the $600 in fines.
“From what I hear, and I can’t say that I have seen any of it, people have been donating to the churches that support the lunch program,” Prattis said. “I am grateful. The bad economy has changed our neighborhood and all I want to do is make sure the children have something nutritious to eat.”
NBC10Philadelphia.com's Tracy Davidson and David Chang contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Nice to know that people with step up to the plate and do the right thing. Thank You.
Amazing how much gov't gets in the way of people helping people.
Well, zoning laws--and procedures for getting variances--exist for real reasons, even though they can suck sometimes for the individual. But what happened here was that community and others--AND the city government--found solutions.
Kudos for Mrs. Prattis. In this day and age it is wonderful to see such a selfless gesture of goodwill in the community.
I think this lady should be praised by the local gov. not harassed by nit picking over zoning but again with gov it all about the money. If they stand to lose a dollar they run you through the ringer for it.
One could only hope that those "lawmakers" won't be caught in such a need as they have denied for basic humanity. But one would kinda of think that people would quietly wish that on them for their heavey handed approach.
thank you for helping. we will need millions more like her .. with obama as prez.
Correction: we need more people like her...with someone other than Obama as Prez. ;-)
Who is that Gross Fat Idiot... NO ONE AGREES WITH YOU... She's a Great Lady ....You are Scum... leave her alone
There is a place to donate to her cause on fundraiser.com, some woman online started it, I don't think Angela even knows about it yet. And BTW Gabe B. this is not President Obama's fault, this kind of crap has been going on for years, in Republican controlled Arizona they just fined a woman for giving away free bottles of water.
Yikes.
What next?
Stay at home mom busted for giving all the neighbor kids playing at her house a snack?
Sometimes the officials in charge lack an ounce of sense.