Seattle Dad Raises $40,000 for Student Lunch Debt, Now Wants to Fund School Supplies
By Ryan General
After raising thousands of dollars to help school children eat proper lunches in public schools in his area, a father is now seeking to generate funding to buy supplies for the local preschool.
Seattle dad Jeff Lew made headlines back in May after he successfully raised over $40,000 to pay for students’ lunch debts in three Washington state districts.
According to NBC, he took action after learning about “school lunch shaming” a practice in some schools in which poor students who did not have money for lunch were denied food, labeled with stamps or wristbands, or provided with “alternate meals”.
Lew, who has a child studying in the Seattle Public Schools district, is now hoping to raise $1,650, to help the Seattle Preschool program purchase some supplies needed for the new school year.
His new mission came about after his son’s teacher sent out an email to parents seeking help to buy a laser printer, toner cartridges and other supplies needed to facilitate learning in the classroom.
As of this writing, the campaign’s GoFundMe page currently has 6 backers and has so far reached only $60 of its $1,650 goal.
In an interview with Q13, Lew explained why donating for the supplies is important to him:
“I’ve heard stories out there where teachers had to take out their own personal money to purchase school supplies. So let’s take the burden off of those teachers and just help them out. We can come together again. Community came together to pay off lunch debts. We can come together again to fund-raise for school supplies.”
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