An 11-year-old fifth-grader has raised $7,300 to pay off his entire elementary school’s lunch debt, and now has his very own award named after him.
Daken Kramer raised twice the amount of money needed for the lunch debt at Thomas Ultican Elementary School in Blue Springs, Missouri through an online fundraiser.
Daken’s original goal was $3,500, a little more than the total outstanding, but in two years he more than doubled his goal.
Daken said that he wanted to show “gratitude” to his school, and donated the leftover funds to Blue Springs High School for its own lunch money deficit.
“Children in elementary school should not have debt tied to their name. We have found out that there are high schools that keep seniors from attending prom or walking at graduation if they have stuff like student lunch debt,” his mother Vanessa Kramer told CNN. “Some families can’t help it. They can’t pay it off.”
The elementary school staff, where lunch can cost up to $2.55 per day, says they were impressed with Daken’s determination. In a surprise announcement during the fifth-grade graduation last Tuesday, the school announced it was creating the “Daken Kramer Legacy Award”, an annual honour that will be given to future fifth-graders who strive to make a difference.
“Your selfless actions will impact dozens of students throughout the district,” Kristi Haley, Daken’s teacher, said as she announced the award. “It’s not the amount of money you raised, although that was absolutely incredible. It’s your heart, your drive, your determination and your grit to help others that inspires us.”
Daken told CNN that he was not expecting the award. “It was definitely a surprise. I had no idea that they were going to do that,” he said. “And I definitely started to feel a lot of emotions.”
A plaque listing all the future recipients of award will hang outside the school’s front office, KMBC reports.
Daken’s mother told CNN that they are now fundraising for the entire state as more and more students have qualified for school lunch programs in recent years.
The United States Department of Agriculture’s 2023 report showed that 7.3 million children live in food-insecure households, and the National School Lunch Program cost $14bn pre-Covid.
