Baton Rouge public school leaders on Thursday plugged a nearly $5 million hole in their student meal service budget after those in charge of the program promised they will pay it all back within four years.

It is an unusual spot for East Baton Rouge Parish’s Children Nutrition Program, which for decades has run healthy surpluses. Over the past two years, however, the program, which serves meals to some 25,000 children each day, has drifted deep into the red.

Superintendent LaMont Cole on Thursday presented the four-year repayment plan to the School Board, as it voted to pull almost $4.9 million from district financial reserves to avoid a deficit.

Under the “Four-Year Financial Recovery Plan,” the program will spend the first two years righting the ship and the second two years paying

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