11-year-old raises money to pay off classmate’s lunch debt

BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. (KMBC) – An 11-year-old student from Missouri is raising money to pay off his classmates’ lunch debt.

“It’s important for kids to eat,” Daken Kramer said. “I don’t think they could make it through the day without eating a school lunch.”

Officials with the Blue Springs School District said all kids have access to school lunches and are provided a free breakfast for those who qualify.

But they said that’s led to a lot of unpaid school lunch debt.

“We definitely have quite a bit of lunch debt that piles up, especially at the end of the year,” Principal Dr. Alison Longwell said.

Longwell said there is more than $3,000 of debt at her elementary school alone and more than $225,000 in the district.

“Sometimes we have businesses reach out, but we don’t typically have families reach out,” she said.

The school district said lunch debt is a huge issue for schools everywhere right now.

That’s why Daken said he wants to pitch in and help as he moves on to middle school. So far he’s raised $560.