8 year old upset that some of his classmates did not have enough money to buy school lunch, raises $11,000.

8 year old Cayden Taipalus

Courtesy of IAcknowledge:

 8-Year-Old Raises Thousands of Dollars to Pay Off Past Due Lunch Accounts of Classmates Jameson March 6, 2014 Class Warfare Exists Let it never be said that even young children can’t see injustice in the world, nor are they powerless to do anything about it. 

When 8-year-old Cayden Taipalus saw that some of this fellow classmates at school were forced to forgo hot meals because their lunch account balances had dipped into the negative, he came home upset. His school’s policy was to allow students to go $5 into the negative before replacing their regular hot meals with cheese sandwiches and milk, according to Tom Gould, director of public relations for the Howell Public School District where Cayden attends. 

“Like a lot of districts, we use accounts where parents add money to their students’ accounts,” Gould said, explaining that parents are notified when their child has a negative balance.

But it’s a problem that faces many students, with some children’s parents unable to afford to ever get them out of the negative. When he got home from school that day, he told his mother that he felt like it was unfair that some kids weren’t being served hot meals and instead had to eat cheese sandwiches because their lunch accounts had no money in them. 

“I just want to make kids have a better lunch,” he told TODAY.com. 

So he decided to do something about it. First, he and his mom began to collect empty bottles and cans and exchanging them as part of a recycling program. That got him about $64, and bought about 150 lunches. Pretty impressive for an 8-year-old, but Cayden was just warming up. 

After he got a little local press for his act of kindness, people began contacting his family asking what they could do to help. Seeing an opportunity to make a bid difference, he started a campaign on an online fundraising site that got money to put towards his schools lunch program. The dollars began pouring in. 

Hundreds of people from across the United States and abroad have donated, pitching in a staggering $10,800 to the cause so far. That’s enough money to pay for well over 4,000 school lunches. Cheese sandwiches will be a distant memory. Cayden probably just got a lot more friends around the school yard.

Whenever I hear anybody say they worry about the future of this country, I always tell them not to.

If this represents the generations to follow ours then I think we are in good hands indeed,

I wish I could express the same confidence in the grownups who think that denying children a hot meal because their parents are a few dollars light in their accounts is teaching these children a valuable lesson.

Well at least they taught one 8 year old boy a lesson he will never forget.