On Tuesday, global crowdfunding platform GoFundMe announced its community has raised more than $375,000 to eliminate school lunch debt.
According to the funding portal, its users have started these campaigns to pay off the accounts of children whose families couldn’t afford them. It was noted that even some of these children would experience “lunch shaming” when in debt, where they’d be given cold food or even made to wear bracelets that would set them apart from other students. To solve this problem, parents, students, community leaders, and ordinary people have fundraised to help end lunch debt in their communities.
“GoFundMe is releasing a new centralized location for all campaigns helping to eliminate lunch debt in our communities. We want to make it as easy as possible for GoFundMe donors to support to an existing campaign or to create a new campaign to eliminate lunch debt.”
GoFundMe added that this movement to end school lunch debt began late last year, but started gaining steam in May, thanks to the actions of Seattle father Jeff Lew, who has so far raised nearly $100,000 to erase lunch debt in his community’s school districts. Many campaign organizers on GoFundMe have been inspired by Mr. Lew and news stories, and together they’re continuing to work to improve the school lunch experience for all American children.
Have a crowdfunding offering you'd like to share? Submit an offering for consideration using our Submit a Tip form and we may share it on our site!
