Anonymous Donor Pays Off $7,800 of Student Lunch Debt in California School District

Many families in a California school district have lots to be thankful for after an anonymous donor paid off more than $7,800 in student lunch debt.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the Ocean View School District —which encompasses Huntington Beach, Midway City, Fountain Valley, and Westminster— received a check for $7,813.50 from an unnamed donor.

The district said that while Ocean View tries “to reconcile negative balances” and “provide children a meal,” the donation “will impact more than 200 families that were struggling with negative lunch balances.”

“We are so grateful for this unexpected gift, and the spirit in which the donation was made is truly inspiring,” Superintendent Carol Hansen said in a statement.

School officials said the donor was a resident of the Ocean View community for more than 20 years and wanted to help after hearing about a Florida man who picked up the tab for the school lunch debt in his community.

“I want to encourage people to look around the community and ask ‘What can I do to make it better?’” the Ocean View donor said, according to a statement obtained by KTLA.

The donor added that he had hoped to take away some of the stress for needy families “so that children have one less thing getting the way of learning,” the statement read.

It is unclear whether it is the same man who inspired this donor, but a Florida man recently picked up a hefty school lunch debt tab for 400 kids across nine different schools after learning that students were not being served a full meal in their school’s cafeterias.