Take eight-year-old Cayden Taipalus, for example, whose compassion and heart of gold ensured that his friends were able to enjoys hot meals at school.
Cayden, a student at Challenger Elementary in Howell, Michigan, made a bold move when he saw that his friend was denied a delicious warm meal at school one day.
Seeing that his friend received a cheese sandwich instead of a hot meal due to insufficient funds in his lunch account, Cayden felt compelled to make a difference.
Upset by the situation, he sought guidance from his mother, Amber Melke-Peters, who spoke with him about how they could prevent such incidents from happening again in the future. So, they decided to create a fundraising webpage called: “Pay It Forward: No Kid Goes Hungry.”
Eager to address the issue, Cayden enlisted the support of friends, family, and neighbors, asking them to donate money so he could settle his friend’s lunch debts – but this went beyond money, according to a report by ABC News on Cayden’s remarkable story.
In fact, Cayden initiated a recycling effort to independently raise money and then asked the lunch staff working at his school to allocate these funds to the accounts of children who were facing significant financial challenges.
Since the inception of Cayden’s initiative, he has managed to raise over $41,000, meaning that he has been able to provide lunches for hundreds and hundreds of students! His ongoing mission is to ensure that no child experiences the hardship of going without a hot lunch during a long school day.
Cayden’s mother could barely contain her pride, telling ABC News: “I am so very proud of my son. He is only 8 years old, and to grasp the concept around this is just amazing in my eyes. He has a heart of gold.”
What began as a stirring feeling in Cayden’s stomach transformed into a project with the potential to guarantee hot meals for numerous children during lunchtime.
Many people took to the comments section of the fundraiser to express how happy they were to see Cayden’s simple act of kindness, with one person writing: “We contributed to this and think it is a wonderful project you chose to do. I hope that someone has nominated your project to the Make a Difference program. Cayden, you have truly made a difference.”
They added: “You have done a wonderful job of helping a lot of kids. You wouldn’t think in a land of plenty that there would be hungry kids, but the reality is, for many children, what they get to eat at school may be their only meal of the day. It is heartbreaking. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and this is a way of us helping to raise a few kids, and let them keep their dignity.”