Proper Help’s Donors Erase School Lunch Debt Nationwide (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: I mean, you got me, you got me literally shaking right now. This is crazy. That was the moment a school employee found out their entire school's lunch debt was being paid off. The woman behind it says with the help of donors, she's now wiped out more than $80,000 in debt across the country and counting. It all started with this video four years ago. Sarah Stusek called a school in her neighborhood to pay off their students' lunch debt.

[00:00:27] Speaker 2: $1,659. Can I pay for it with a credit card over the phone? No, it would have to be, it would be a check. I am so nervous when I make these calls that it's hard for me to process what's happening. I am a cancer, so I am very emotional and it makes me happy. They're usually tears of joy.

[00:00:44] Speaker 1: When she found one district that didn't itemize the debt by school, she raised nearly $30,000 to pay off the lunch debt for all the schools in the district. And she started a foundation called Proper Help to organize all those donations. She says they still have more than $100,000 to give away. We have been waiting for this phone call. Let me grab her real quick. Do not hang up. OK, thank you. The School Nutrition Association just published a report finding the median unpaid meal debt was $6,000 per public school district for fall 2025, up from just $2,000 a decade ago.

[00:01:25] Speaker 2: The idea that children's access to food can be tied to a balance, and that means that they can't eat anymore. Sometimes they can't graduate, they can't go on field trips. This is a huge problem, like, and we're just scratching the surface. I pray that universal free lunch passes. Kids should be able to be kids.