Dad Learns Daughter’s Classmates Can't Afford School Meals – Pays Off Every Student’s Lunch Debt

May 29, 2019 by apost team

It’s always a wonderful thing to hear about someone who is successful in their business life to truly give back. One father decided to give back to the students at his daughter’s school. Shawn Baumgardner has a daughter in middle school. He also happens to be the CEO of Chobani, a company best known for its yogurt. 

He couldn’t believe when he heard that some of the students at his daughter’s middle school weren’t getting access to the same high-quality lunches because of outstanding lunch fees at the school. In fact, in 2019 alone the public school system where his daughter attends school had more than $77,000 outstanding fees specifically in school lunches. This wasn’t specific to his daughter’s school alone.

More than 75% of the school districts throughout the United States also suffered from unpaid student meal debt. This means that those students with unpaid lunch debt don’t receive hot lunches and often end up going hungry.

apost.com

Together with Chobani, Mr. Baumgardner worked to raise $50,000 to pay off the entirety of student lunch debts throughout Rhode Island. He was moved by the fact that some of these students were actually going hungry at school because they either didn’t have enough money to pay for hot lunches or they had a negative balance on their lunch expenses.

In the Milwaukee school district sometimes around 60% of students are enrolled in sponsored lunch programs that allow them to get free or reduced-cost hot lunches at school. Students without access to these would be unable to have access to a warm meal during the school day. 

He was moved by one student in Wisconsin that was sharing her lunch with one of her classmates because that classmate didn’t have the funds to obtain a simple hot lunch. Mr. Baumgardner felt fortunate enough to be in a position that he could actually make a tangible difference in paying off the lunch balances.

That’s exactly what he did. His daughter posted a video that quickly went viral and it’s clear to see how incredibly proud she is of her father for making such a big difference in the daily lives of so many students. 

Isn’t it heartwarming to hear acts of generosity like this? No child should have to go the entire school day without a decent meal to keep them full. We’d love to hear your comments on this incredibly generous act by one loving father.