Second grader pays off classmates’ lunch debts

One elementary school student came up with a creative way to help his friends. Eight-year-old Keoni Ching made and sold enough custom beaded key chains to pay off all the outstanding school lunch debt at his school, Benjamin Franklin Elementary in Vancouver, Wash. He presented the check on Friday as the school wrapped up its annual Kindness Week. He raised more than $4,000, enough to cover not only the lunch debt for students at his school but also at several other nearby schools.

What inspired him? After seeing San Francisco 49ers player and former Seattle Seahawk Richard Sherman pay off students’ school lunch debt in Tacoma, Wash., Ching said he decided to do the same thing. “It just makes us very proud of him and all of the things that he wants to do for other people,” his mother, April Ching, told KATU-TV in Portland, Ore.

Dig deeper: Read Laura Edghill’s report in Schooled about how churches have tackled the problem of mounting school lunch debts.