Students can’t learn if they’re hungry, a Utah middle school teacher shared in a now-viral TikTok clip.
Garrett Jones’ six-second video quickly sparked a wave of generosity that would help pay off thousands of dollars in student debt.
“School lunch should be free,” Jones, a five-year-old educator at Rocky Mountain Middle School in Heber City, wrote in the caption of the viral clip.
The seventh- and eighth-grade teacher posted the video as a twist on a social media trend that involved people asking for small donations for personal trips, weddings or dream cars, KSL News in Utah reported. .
When father-of-two Jones decided to use the trend for charity two weeks ago, he had no idea the video would help raise over $30,000.
“I was blown away,” Jones told USA TODAY. “I literally expected, best case scenario, that we would get maybe a couple hundred dollars.”
The funds will be used to waive overdue meal fees in the Wasatch County School District, according to Jones.
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Take lunch debt off students’ plates
Students in the Jones School District were among 50 million students receiving free lunches for two years through the federal program that covered costs during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The program ended last year, which means some students are once again having to deal with unpaid meal bills in the cafeteria queue.
“It’s really not up to them to pay, but it’s up to them that we have to hand a little slip to take home and say ‘here’s your balance’, which isn’t much fun for them or for us,” Jones said. .
He’s spotted students hanging out in the hallways during lunchtime, he shared, adding that cafeteria staff at his school feed the children whether or not they owe money.
“I think for college kids, probably the only thing worse than being hungry is being embarrassed,” Jones said. “Being on the front lines and hearing that they have balance is probably enough to deter some of them from even eating at all.”
Aware that some students go so far as to skip lunch to avoid embarrassment, he posted a TikTok video indicating that he could pay the unpaid meal bills of every student at his school if 2,673 people each sent him $1 via Venmo.
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“The last thing a child should worry about is how much money they owe for meals somewhere they are legally required to be,” the video reads.
The clip has 5 million views. Even more touching than the generosity of strangers were the comments only visible to her when people donated their funds, Jones said.
“A lot of them were $1, $2, or $3, and they were like, ‘I really can’t afford to do much more than that, but I was that kid, I know what it’s like. to have that slip and to hear that you have balance,” he said.
“How can we have a lasting impact”
Jones, who was honored as “Distinguished Educator of the Year” by the Wasatch Education Foundation last May, is working with the foundation to cover some $4,000 in unpaid lunch costs in the school district.
“Garrett is an example of an educator who is passionate about supporting children wholeheartedly,” said Kimberly Dickerson, school board member and foundation board member.
“A starving child cannot learn to their full potential, so for Garrett to realize how important it is to ease the worry of students who have a negative meal balance shows enormous compassion,” Dickerson said in a statement. E-mail.
Jones says he hopes school lunch fundraisers will write to their reps about the issue.
“That’s how we can have a lasting impact, and obviously there’s pretty broad support,” he said. “We just have to let them hear it.”
Contributor: Kayla Jimenez, USA TODAY
USA Today
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