- Welcome back everybody,
I'm here with Reid Scott and Hannah Waddingham, give it up.
(applause)
No kid should ever go hungry,
especially at school.
Sadly, this school year,
US students have run up
nearly $20 million in school lunch debt
and the number continues to climb.
We'll get to the reasons behind that in a minute,
but first, take a look at a teacher in Utah,
doing something about it.
So, he posted a TikTok promising to pay off the lunch debt
of his students.
So far, he's raised $30,000,
so it's a start.
And that makes him best in class, y'all.
(theme music)
Please welcome, Garrett,
better known as Mr. Jones to his students.
(applause)
Meet Hannah, meet Reid.
So, you're a middle school teacher,
so tell us about your students.
- Yeah, so I teach 7th and 8th grade,
I teach a class called, "College and Career Awareness"
and then a class called "Digital Literacy",
where we learn about the internet.
And I love teaching,
it's my fifth year,
I love so many parts about the job.
We have a lot of different demographics in our little town,
where we have a lot of really wealthy people
and then not so much.
So, one of the parts
I don't love about my job is every couple weeks,
teachers are asked to give,
and if you've ever been in public school,
you're probably familiar with this,
but we're asked to give them a little slip
that says this is how much you owe for lunch,
you need to take care of this balance.
And it's a bummer to have to do that,
and no matter how discreet you try and be,
or secretive or whatever,
it's always just kind of an embarrassing exchange
and it's always the same five or six kids,
and it feels like a lot to put on a 12 or 13 year old,
so that's kinda why I've been thinking about it.
- It would affect them obviously, yeah.
So you noticed this problem is getting worse,
why do you think?
- So, I think there's a lot to it,
the last two years,
we've had federal funding for lunch and breakfast
for every student because of COVID.
- Via COVID, yeah.
- Yeah, so it wasn't an issue at all,
and so people kinda stopped thinking about it,
and we gave them this nice little security blanket,
and then that funding went away
and we kinda just ripped it away.
So that's part of it.
I think another part of it
is just so many people are struggling right now,
things are so expensive.
So, there's so many people just outside of the threshold
where they can qualify for free and reduced lunch,
but they're still really struggling.
So, those are parts of it.
But no matter what the variables are,
I don't think it really matters,
because the end result of all that
is that there are kids at school that are hungry.
- And you can't learn that too when you're starving.
You know what I'm saying?
It's already hard enough
to get kids to focus in the first place.
- Yeah, there's a thing we talk about in education,
it's called, "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs",
and the very bottom of it is the physiological stuff,
food, water, and rest.
If they don't have food,
they, like you said, literally they can't learn.
- It affects it obviously.
Yeah, that domino effect.
So, Hannah, I've heard that there's been a lot of work
to have better school lunches
for kids in the UK as well, right?
- Yeah, there was a big offensive in England
to not only raise how free food for kids
but also the nutritional levels.
So everything has to have a certain nutritional level.
- Well, what happened when you posted your video?
- So, the response was insane.
The media and just overwhelming,
like within a day,
we had raised like $10,000.
- Wow.
- Yeah, it's amazing right?
(applause)
Within a few days, it got all the way up to $30,000,
and what really struck me about it was,
and you can see some of this in the comments of the video,
but most people,
the more private stuff they put as a comment,
like in the Venmo donation,
so it was only me seeing it,
and all these donations, like one, two, three dollars,
it really was just like a communal thing
of just here's a couple bucks.
But what really struck me was almost every single comment
said this was me,
I was the kid,
I don't want that to happen to anyone else.
So, we just need,
we need permanent solutions,
we need boots on the ground.
- It's shameful, really.
- Yeah, we need people to reach out,
and say to their representatives,
this is a cause that I support,
this is a good use of our money.
- And you'd hope that most politicians
would get behind, right?
- Yeah, it's a home run.
- Like who doesn't want to help, yeah exactly.
Well.
- My mom was a public school art teacher for 30 years.
- Oh yeah?
- So I saw first-hand,
I have no idea how many thousands of dollars
over her career,
she probably spent on her own materials to bring in
because the school system
couldn't afford to stock her art room with what they need.
My kids are in public school here in Los Angeles
and we make as many donations as we possibly can
to sorta supplement what the teachers need.
I think the teachers are grossly underpaid,
I think the schools are grossly underfunded.
I think it takes someone as noble as you,
and I think this is a call-to-action
for a lot of people now.
This is a big problem.
- Yeah.
- We have the resources,
we can make it happen.
It's like one of those rare problems
where there is an answer,
and it's literally just a dollar amount.
- Yeah.
Ugh, I love that.
Well, we are truly impressed
with what Garrett is doing for his students,
so we're gonna give him $5,000 to further his efforts
to wipe out student's debt.
And also, if this is something that you care about,
and remember, you don't have to have kids,
this effects every community,
even if you don't have kids
in your community that are yours,
still, the kids in your community
are growing up to be leaders in your community.
This effects everyone.
So, if this is something that you care about,
contact your representative,
reach out, make some noise.
This is for such a great thing.
No student in this country
should ever be learning on an empty stomach
or just having an empty stomach in general.