Good Samaritan Pays Off All Negative Balance Lunch Accounts At Elementary School

by **Ponee** Mon Feb 10, 2014 10:52 am

By Jonathan Wolfe, Fri, February 07, 2014
Houston resident Kenny Thompson just made a lot of children very happy.
After hearing of the Utah school officials who threw away the lunches of children with unpaid balances, he decided to see if children in his area were having problems paying for lunch as well.

"I'm like, 'Wow. I know that's probably a situation at my school, and the school my son goes to, and the other schools I mentor at.' So I came in and inquired about it," Thompson said.
Sure enough, children at the school had the same problem.

Thompson discovered that many of the children were forced to eat cold cheese sandwiches while their peers had full trays of hot food.

“It was horrifying, it broke my heart,” Thompson said. “These are elementary kids. They’re not bankers, and not responsible for the financial issues in the household.”
Thompson, a child mentor of ten years, was so bothered by the situation that he decided to do something incredible.

He went to Valley Oaks Elementary School and paid off every negative lunch account balance at the school. The good deed cost him $465. If you ask Thompson, he’ll tell you it's the best way he could have spent the money.

"When I left the building knowing that they were getting fed, they didn't have that stress," said Thompson. "The best money I ever spent."

Thompson’s kindness looks to be contagious. He told Houston station KPRC that he heard reports of a woman going into another school and offering to pay off delinquent lunch accounts just like “the man on TV.”

“They say everything is bigger in Texas,” Thompson said. “That means our hearts too.”