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SALT LAKE CITY — The throwing away of kids' lunches at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake prompted a man in Houston to take action at the school where he volunteers.
Kenny Thompson, a mentor and volunteer at Valley Oaks Elementary School, discovered about 60 children at that school had delinquent accounts and received cold cheese sandwiches instead of a full tray of food for lunch.
So, he pulled $465 out of his pocket to change that.
“I thought that it would be better just to come in and zero out the balances, start from a clean slate, and no one would have to worry about any account balances.," he told Today.com. "The kids would eat every day, and that’s what I did."
He had heard of the incident at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake City where adults threw out the lunches of kids who had delinquent accounts. He said just because the parents are late doesn’t mean the children should starve.
“The one meal we can control in school is lunch. These are elementary school kids. They don’t need to be worried about finances. They need to be worried about what grade they got in spelling," he told KPRC in Houston.
Thompson called it the best money he ever spent.