A student looks at his school lunch options (Shutterstock).
A Seattle man who was disturbed by local schools shaming poor kids who can’t pay for their lunches has raised $40,000 to help pay off their “lunch debts.”
NBC News reports that Seattle resident Jeffrey Lew, who himself is a graduate of Seattle’s public school system, was moved to act after he ready a story about local schools “where students who don’t have enough money to pay for lunch are denied food, singled-out with stamps or wrist bands, or are given an alternate meal.”
To fix this, he launched a GoFundMe campaign that has so far raised more than $40,000 to pay off existing lunch debts so that students don’t have to feel humiliated if they can’t afford to pay for lunch.
“As a parent and graduate of the Seattle Public Schools, I am trying to help ease the burden of these families and make sure these children get to eat a nutritious meal each day at school,” Lew wrote on his fundraising website. “I used to look forward to school lunches each day. I am sure these children feel the same!”
Lew’s campaign, which so far has attracted donations from the Safeway Foundation and singer-songwriter John Legend, is aiming to raise a total of $50,000 by the time it ends next month.
Kitten04 on June 1st, 2017 at 03:28 UTC »
It seems that quite a few of the people in this thread are confused/misunderstanding the "shaming" part of the too poor for lunch issue. From personal experience, I can say that it is a really awful thing that happens. When I was in fourth grade, I was pretty poor and my lunch credit ran out after I had already picked out my lunch. The lunch lady took it and told me to sit at a table and a couple minutes later handed me a pb&j and milk.
I also wasn't allowed to eat outside with everyone else because of my lunch money being low and it was the first time that I genuinely felt ashamed of not having money, especially when I was asked about it by my peers and friends. I think what this man is doing is great and I hope it helps enough that no kid in that school system has to feel ashamed of themselves and their parents/home lives all because they couldn't afford the regular lunch.
RalphieRaccoon on May 31st, 2017 at 22:54 UTC »
In the UK, if you are poor, you get a free lunch meal at school (some places also do breakfast clubs, but I think those are funded by charities). Not some alternate meal, what everyone else gets (in high school I believe you got a set amount per day but it would be enough to buy a typical meal at the cafeteria). It's actually used as a yardstick in the media to indicate how deprived an area is by how many of the local school's pupils qualify.
Exitbuddy1 on May 31st, 2017 at 22:04 UTC »
At my child's school, a new school, I was livid to learn that shaming is their tactic also. My son ran out of money on his lunch card and I wasn't aware as they don't notify when it is getting low. They allowed him to go through the line and pick out what he wanted only to get to the cashier who told him he didn't have money on his card. She took his tray from him then and handed him a PB&J in a ziplock bag right there at the register in front of everyone. The rest is even more despicable if true, but I asked him what they did with the food on his tray and he said they threw it in the trash. WTF is wrong with people?
The guy who gave out that money is truly amazing person. Bless him