John Legend Donates $5,000 to Help Eliminate School Lunch Shaming

Have you ever heard of school lunch shaming? If you’re not a public school parent or teacher, you probably haven’t, but it’s a major issue across the country. According to CNN, approximately 76 percent of American school districts have children with school lunch debt, which is, sadly, exactly what it sounds like: If a child doesn’t have enough money for their lunch, their hot lunch is either replaced by a cold cheese sandwich and small milk or taken away entirely.

Seattle dad Jeff Lew decided to take action and set up a GoFundMe to cover local student debt. Lew has received many donations and is currently about $6,000 away from his goal of $50,000. The greatest donation of the lot came from the mysterious “John Stephens” in the amount of $5,000. Left without comment, Lew began to speculate whether this John Stephens was, in fact, the John Stephens, best known for his stage name John Legend. The singer’s wife, Chrissy Teigen, lived in a neighboring Washington town in her youth, so it wasn’t a total shot in the dark.

After sending a courteous email to the donor, Legend himself confirmed Lew’s belief.

Lew thanked the singer on Twitter as well, to which he responded, “My pleasure! We should have free lunch for all of our public students!"

No one should have to take on debt before adulthood. Thanks for raising awareness, John.