Holy Family School - McKinney, Texas

Mark your calendars for Thursday, February 12th!

REDUCED SCHOOL LUNCH IS NOW FREE IN TEXAS FOR THOSE WHO QUALIFY FOR 26-27 school year. See below from community impact. What you need to know and do.

This school year, students who are eligible for reduced-price meals can receive free breakfast and lunch at public schools across Texas.

During the recent legislative session, state lawmakers approved $19.8 million to cover the cost of reduced-price meals for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years through the $338 billion state budget.

“Kids who would have paid a small fee for meals will now receive them at no cost,” said Stacie Sanchez Hare, director of No Kid Hungry Texas. “[School] is where we know so many kids get their meals—it is a guaranteed place for kids to have access to free and nutritional meals.”

What you need to know

Eligibility for free school meals is determined based on a family’s income through the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program.

Families can contact their school district to fill out an application for free or reduced-price meals at any time during the school year. Students who are deemed eligible for reduced-price meals will receive them at no cost through the 2026-27 school year.

“If you were a reduced-price meal recipient last year, you might be eating for free for both meals this year,” Sanchez Hare told Community Impact. “A reminder to parents: if they did not fill it out, [we’re] asking them to complete that [form], because their child might eat for free this year.”

Over 4,700 campuses across Texas provide free meals to all students under the Community Eligibility Provision, according to Texas Department of Agriculture data. The federal program allows schools in low-income areas to provide free meals regardless of a family’s income.

Our McKinney Chamber of Commerce is highlighting the shortage of and necessity for affordable childcare! Thank you Mary Valadez from Texas Womens Foundation and thank you to the Women’s Alliance of McKinney for addressing this crisis!

Thank you District 1 councilman Justin Beller for posting this wonderful history three years ago today. Justin’s comments:
I like reading history and I thought this article from 1970 was fitting to share at the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month and with the renaming of the Gilda Garcia Garza Aquatic Center. Father Robert Samuelson, Frank Garcia, and Leonard Gonzales championed their community and did so much to help make McKinney what it is today. My friend Leonard is still working for this community. I’m thankful for them and the groundwork they laid for leaders like Gilda. They made McKinney better for everyone.

I’ve included the text of the article below to make reading easier. In the pictures, It reads as the first column down all three pictures and then the second column as well. The remainder of the article is on the first picture.

Social Issues Reach Towns
Mexican-American Community of McKinney Speaks Out
By ROY HAMRIC
News Staff Writer

McKINNEY - The social issues which for the past decade have been re-working the fabric of life in large cities are only now drifting down to the level of small towns. When they arrive, however, they can be as divisive, or more so, as disputes that erupt in metropolitan areas. The three races which make up this community white, Mexican-American and Negro - have a long history of tranquility. But that is changing.

AFTER YEARS of political silence, the Mexican-American community here, numbering about 2,000, is beginning to talk of participation in community affairs and organize civic groups. In addition, the Negro community, numbering about 1,500, is in the process of forming a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The issue which Mexican-Americans are rallying around here is lack of sewage. Other concerns are inadequate streets and the lack of either minority race being represented on any government board or in any city or county department of consequence. Similar movements among Mexican-Americans are taking place in small cities throughout the state. "It's just been luck that we haven't had a serious epidemic,” says Father Robert Samuelson, an Episcopal priest who operates a church and children's day-care center in east McKinney, a predominantly Mexican-American and Negro area.

FATHER SAMUELSON'S church is located on a hill on which live 55 families. None has standard sewage facilities. They use outdoor privies.
Other areas to the north and south of the hill are without sewage facilities also. In all, the city estimates there are 300 outdoor privies in east McKinney. The privies probably serve as many as 1,000 men, women and children - mostly children. City officials say money has not been available to provide the area with sewage. Moreover, they say, the hill complicates the problem further because it would require a sewage pumping station to be built, at an additional cost of $70,000. In the three years he has been in McKinney, Father Samuelson has observed a dramatic change in Mexican-American attitudes.

"THERE'S A GROWING tendency, and I think a good one, to be proud of being Mexican-American," he says. "People are becoming impatient with the treatment they have received by the city government and they now realize they must organize. Young Mexican-Americans, who generally are more willing to speak out than their parents, are the cause for the neighborhood's change, Father Samuelson said. "The older generation accepts what the younger generation is trying to do, but they just haven't been willing to do it themselves," he said. An important factor, most likely, is that most of McKinney's older Mexican-Americans originally migrated from Mexico and worked here as laborers on surrounding farms. In contrast, most of the younger generation were born here, educated here and are now commuting and working in Dallas. The young are the organizers of the only local Mexican-American civic group, formed three months ago, the McKinney Improvement Association. One of its projects is the extension of sewage facilities to all of east McKinney.

THE GROUP'S president, Leonard Gonzales, is 29 years old. He has an average income, lives in a new housing addition, and is a native of the east side.One of the association's goals is to register more voters and, in general, involve older persons in community affairs. But there are problems. "It's hard for older Mexican-Americans to understand," Gonzales explained. "For too many years, they've gone the Anglo way and been afraid to speak out." However, his group has been successful in causing large numbers of up to 40 Mexican-Americans to attend recent council meetings and to make their dissatisfaction known. Gonzales has also been working among the Negro community, "telling them what we're trying to do." He's hopeful the two races-and whites-can work together.

EVENTUALLY, Gonzales hopes the east side will be able to form enough support to elect a member of the minority race to the council. Father Samuelson admits civic feelings most likely will be hurt by the airing of east side grievences, but he believes that the well for so long is because "everyone's been very quiet up till now." "But nothing has been accomplished by silence," he says. "I've come to the conclusion that you have to make yourself heard." The man caught in the middle of the sewage issue is Lee Vickers, McKinney city manager. He was appointed in 1968. Since then, the city has done more for the east side than any time previously, Vickers claims. He points to the installation of standard water mains and fire hydrants in 1968 and the "rocking" of many streets in the area. Less than 20 percent of the streets in east McKinney are paved.

DURING HIS TENURE, the number of privies has dropped from 350 to 300, due to residents tying in to existing sewage lines where avilable. Vickers said funds are not available to extend sewage to areas not served because the city is in debt, paying interest on previous bond issues. Part of the city's debt problem stems from lack of industry to tax. Total revenue estimated for 1970 is $453,000. Half of that figure is spent on maintenance of the local police department. The majority of the remainder is taken up by other city departments. A bond issue to finance sewage extension into east McKinney would have doubtful chances among the public, said Vickers. He said a $70,000 expenditure out of city funds to finance a pumping station would "economically speaking never be feasible." However, surrounding low areas to the north and south of the hill also lack sewage facilities, and expansion into these areas has seemed painfully slow to residents.

WHAT RANKLES. Mexican-Americans further is that the city, until this month, hasn't diligently attempted to secure federal funds to provide sewage for the area. It is now in the first stage of applying for a "workable program certificate" which would allow it to apply for funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Similar efforts in the past, however, have failed to bear fruit. According to HUD, the city first inquired about federal funds in 1966. An application was sent in reply, but it was never returned by city officials. Several follow-up letters by HUD went unanswered. Then, in mid-1968, city officials met with HUD to discuss an assistance grant. This newest effort will be the third time in four years city officials have gone through preliminary contacts with HUD.

MEANWHILE, what keeps serious illnesses from occurring in the east side is little more than luck. Sewage facilities for most families consist of a hole in the ground, covered by an out-house. And lots in the area are very small. Whenever an out-house has to be moved, it is done with great care, for even the smallest space in most yards has been used before. In addition, mosquitoes, flies and other insects compound the problem during summer. Several cases of hepatitis occurred in the neighborhood in 1968, but they could not be positively linked to the lack of basic sewerage. The city makes an attempt at servicing the privies through the efforts of one man using a Jeep. The biggest factor in preventing diseases, however, is the local public health unit which keeps close watch on the area. City ordinances make it illegal for persons having access to sewage lines not to tie in to them. However, the ordinance is not enforced strictly, due to the large number of absentee landlords who own low-price rent property and refuse to spend the necessary installation cost.

FATHER SAMUELSON believes that almost all of the Mexican-American community which owns property would voluntarily tie in to sewage lines, if they were available. "There would be some who wouldn't hook up unless forced to," he said, "but our feeling is that, once lines are available, the ordinance should be strictlv enforced.” For persons that can claim indigency, the city offers a plan whereby they are required to pay only $50 and the city makes up the reminder of the cost. Statistics on the exact number of dwellings owned by landlords is not available. East side residents say the number is large, perhaps over 50 per cent. City manager Vickers admits that a serious problem exists with absentee landlords, but the city is "bearing down more with each month," he said.

FRANK GARCIA is from one of the oldest Mexican-American families in McKinney. Since 1943, he has been appealing before the city council seeking, among other things, sewage for east McKinney. After years of little community support, his neighbors are beginning to appreciate what he has tried to do for them. Others, however, have become enemies. Garcia has been threatened because of his efforts before the council. He has been told by anonymous phoners that it is not any of his business what goes on in council meetings. When he ran as a candidate for the council in 1969, he was offered a bribe to get out of the race. He received 500 votes to the winner's 1,000. Garcia's reception before the council has been a factor in arousing interest among younger persons, Gonzales said.

"THE PEOPLE now are getting anxious to get what's coming to them," said Garcia. "It's getting to a point even where it's hard to control them." He believes that, if Mexican-Americans aren't soon given a larger role in the community's life, young people will be forced to leave to obtain better opportunities. "We have girls here who take typing, bookkeeping and shorthand, but none has ever had an opportunity to practice here." he said. Nor have any Mexican-Americans or Negroes ever been employed by any city or county department other than as work crews or janitorial help, Garcia said. "We've had several qualified apply, but none has ever been employed." "This is what agitates the young," he said. "We're living here, they graduate from school here and they don't profit by it unless they leave." "I'm getting to the point now where I'm go out and demonstrate," said Garcia wearily. "It might take that to make these organizations wake up."

THERE IS GROWING evidence that the city is already beginning to "wake up." A better understanding of city-wide conditions may come about through a Citizens Advisory Commission, now being formed, composed of 46 representatives from across the city. The commission's job will be to help formulate future goals. "We'll throw down some challenges and
then hope the commission will become a self-generating force" in helping to solve problems, said Vickers. "The search for committee members has been the most objective one that I've ever seen in my 18 years in municipal administration," he said. Leaders on the east side, however, have a wait-and-see attitude about what the commission will accomplish. "This should have been done years ago," declared, one Negro leader bitterly. "The only reason they're doing it now is because we're pushing them." Referring to the growing interest among both Negroes and Mexican-Americans in their community's affairs, he commented: “We realize we all have a common problem and we need to work together. We like McKinney, but we feel it can be a better place."

HFS friends and families- we have a volunteer opportunity to assist with the upcoming Dia de los Mu***os event in downtown McKinney!

McKinney Dia de los Mu***os Volunteer Application - 2025 McKinney Día de los Mu***os - Eventeny September 13, 2025 - McKinney Dia de los Mu***os Volunteer Application - Volunteer to help on a variety of activities to help facilitate a successful Dia de los Mu***os event October 11, 2025. Volunteers needed the night of October 10th for set up and day of volunteers.

We are so excited for Believe Run McKinney! Welcome to our dear friends and neighbors at AEYL! ❤️

📣 New Beneficiary Announcement! 📣
For the past 15 years, the Believe 5K has proudly supported Holy Family School, providing scholarships for early childhood education right here in our community. That commitment remains strong—and we’re excited to continue investing in our youngest learners.
✨ But now, we’re growing our impact.
This year, we’re thrilled to announce that AEYL (Alliance of Elite Youth Leadership) will be joining Holy Family as a new beneficiary of the Believe 5K!
Based in McKinney, AEYL is doing incredible work to empower teens and young adults through programs focused on higher education, economic opportunity, and community development. Their mission aligns beautifully with our growing vision to support youth at every stage of their development.
Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more about AEYL’s powerful work and the lives they’re changing. We can’t wait for you to get to know them.
Let’s Believe! in the next generation—together. 💙

Exciting updates at Holy Family School - McKinney, Texas
Thank you for your continued encouragement as we move the mission forward...together.

Holy Family School - McKinney, Texas

Big thank you to the McKinney Legacy Neighborhoods Association Board for meeting with us this week! Great conversation about Holy Family’s current situation and future! This school is loved by so many, and we’re excited to find ways for everyone to be involved and serve. The future is bright!