ORANGE CITY, Fla – A Volusia County mother is raising funds to make sure no students are denied lunch because they don't have enough money to pay for it.
News 6 first reported what happened to Kimberly Aiken's daughter last week on her first day of school.
Aiken said her daughter was denied her school lunch because she was 15 cents short, and she said the lunch was thrown away.
One week later, Aiken said, she's been overwhelmed with people wanting to pay for her daughter's lunches for the school year.
News 6 has received emails from people wanting to help from as far away as Qatar, where a member of the United States Air Force wanted to pay.
Aiken and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law have created a GoFundMe account to raise money for their newly developed campaign.
Aiken said she wants to create a fund, so if a child is short on change, cafeteria workers can dip into it.
"I’m not 100 percent sure how we can make this work in the school district, but the main thing is maybe there is some kind of code that they can type in at the register and it’ll pull money from that account," Aiken said.
The fundraising campaign has attracted attention from Rapper T.I., who donated to the cause, Aiken said.
She said the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is in the process of establishing contact with the Volusia County school district to see how cafeteria workers could possibly get access to the funds.
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