Garrett Jones, a Utah middle-school teacher’s 6-second video on TikTok swiftly ignited an upsurge of kindness from people, on and off the internet, that would settle thousands of dollars worth of student lunch debt.
Seeing the trend on social media where people request donations, Jones took a long shot and posted a video about the plight of students in his school.
He never imagined it could help him raise more than $30,000.
Garrett Jones ‘Blown away’
“I was blown away,” Garrett Jones told USA TODAY. “I was really expecting, best-case scenario, maybe we’d get a couple hundred bucks.”
Students in Jones’ school district were among the 50 million who received free lunches for two years through the federal program that covered the costs during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
The program ended in 2022, so students are again facing outstanding lunch fees in the cafeteria line.
“It’s really not up to them to be able to pay, but it’s them who we have to hand a little slip to take home and say, ‘Here’s your balance,’ which isn’t super fun for them or us,” Jones said.
“I think for middle schoolers, probably the only thing worse than being hungry is being embarrassed,” Garrett Jones said. “Being at the front of the line and hearing they have a balance is likely enough to dissuade some of them from even eating at all.”
The video
The TikTok video says he could pay the outstanding lunch fees of each student at his school if 2,673 people sent him $1 via Venmo.
“The last thing a kid should be worrying about is how much money they owe for meals at a place they’re legally obligated to be,” the video’s text reads.
The clip garnered 5 million views and the comments were very touching, Jones said.
“So many of them were $1, $2 or $3, and they were like, ‘I really can’t afford to do much more than this, but I was that kid, I know what it’s like to get that slip and to hear that you have a balance,’” he said.
Garret Jones
Garrett Jones, was honored as the Wasatch Education Foundation’s Distinguished Educator of the Year. He is working with the foundation to cover the approximately $4,000 of outstanding lunch fees across the school district.
“Garrett is an example of an educator who is passionate about wholly supporting kids,” said Kimberly Dickerson, a member of the school board and the foundation’s board of directors.
“A hungry child cannot learn to their fullest potential, so for Garrett to realize how important it is to relieve the worry of students carrying a negative lunch balance shows enormous compassion,” Dickerson said in an email.
Jones says he hopes those passionate about funding school lunches will write to their representatives about the issue.
“That’s how we can have a lasting impact, and there is obviously pretty widespread support,” he said. “We just need to make them hear it.”