The routine of making and packing school lunches is not one that most parents love to do.
While everyone does it, of course, school lunches tend to be a pretty uncreative mix of a sandwich, some fruits and veggies, and a small dessert, which can get tedious. But one mom, who has only one son, makes two school lunches every day.
Her son started asking her to make two lunches.
Josette Duran, mother of Dylan, had some questions when her son asked her to make two lunches for school. At first, she thought that he wasn’t getting full enough from the first one and was spending all day hungry. After all, kids grow fast and can have pretty big appetites as a result.
But Dylan had an alternate reason for making this request.
He told his mom that there was another boy in his school that only brought a fruit cup to eat for lunch every day. So while Dylan was getting full on his lunch, he was noticing that this other boy didn’t have enough to eat, and didn’t have enough money to buy a hot lunch from school either.
Dylan wanted to help this other student be fed, so he thought that bringing him another lunch that his mother made would help the boy out. Josette was so touched by her son’s thoughtfulness that she posted about their conversation on Facebook Live. It’s definitely a good reason to be proud!
Dylan’s request meant a lot to Josette.
She quickly found out what was going on with the boy at Dylan’s school. It turns out that he was currently houseless with his family, which is something that Josette and Dylan had also experienced previously in their life.
Josette and Dylan had faced being unhoused and had gone through their own trials together.
They had been forced to live in her car and wash themselves in public bathrooms. But even more strikingly, they had also experienced hunger and hadn’t had enough to eat at one point.
The fact that her son was helping someone suffering from something that had once impacted them made Josette all the more touched and willing to help out.
So Josette started to make two school lunches every day.
She didn’t mind the extra work at all. She knew exactly what it was like to go through that, and it helped her be more empathetic of the situation. She would even leave notes in their lunches saying things like “Have a great lunch boys!”
One day, Josette got a call from the school.
The principal called her and asked her to come in. When she got to the office, she met the other boy’s mother for the first time. It was certainly an emotional meeting as the two women got to know each other.
When they met, the other mother thanked Josette for her help and explained that she had recently gotten a new job. As a way of saying thanks, she wanted to give Josette some money for helping her son while their family was enduring hard times. But Josette refused the money.
Josette says that the mother of the boy she helped feed said this:
“‘Thank you for feeding him. He’s doing better in school,’ and that my son is his best friend.”
Josette took it one step further.
In addition to being Dylan’s mom, Josette is also the girl’s volleyball coach at that school.
While the team had initially been raising money to help pay her back for the additional cost of making a second lunch, she also refused to pocket this money.
The team raised over $400 and she used it to pay off every student’s school lunch debt.
So now, because of Josette, every child at the school gets a filling hot lunch every day, even if their parents couldn’t afford it.
Josette and her son’s selflessness changed a lot of lives at that school for the better.
Josette shared her story in order to inspire other people to do similar acts of kindness and to encourage people to keep an eye out for people who might be struggling. If you see someone struggling with poverty, don’t hesitate to ask if they want some type of help.
Learn more about the kindness Josette and her son are spreading in the video below!
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