Mom Packs Extra Lunch for Son's Needy Classmate After He Was Seen Eating Only a Fruit Cup
There is such thing as a free lunch, as a New Mexico schoolboy and his mom can proudly attest.
Josette Duran was puzzled when her son Dylan, 14, asked her to pack him an extra snack in his school lunch. When she asked him why, his response was truly touching.
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Dylan had asked on behalf of a classmate he noticed during his first week of school who was sitting alone and eating only a fruit cup during lunch.
Josette Duran didn’t question the student's situation and she kindly sent Dylan to school with a duplicate lunch for three months straight.
After learning the student’s mother recently lost her job, the 37-year-old mother would do a weekly shopping routine to provide lunches for both Dylan and his classmate.
She would pack two sandwiches, two snacks, two drinks, two bags of chips and two fruit cups for the boys.
"I don’t think we did anything special. Duran said. "I was always taught to look out for the other person and it was embedded in my son. “We know what it feels like to need help and I felt the need to just do it."
The mother and volleyball coach also knows what it feels like to carry pride and being in need because she and Dylan were once homeless.
She claims she was scammed shortly after raising enough money to buy a house, and lost everything. As a result, they were living out of their car and depended heavily on friends for places to sleep and shower.
Despite their hardships, Josette learned to move forward and she found a place where she knew she can give back as a middle school volleyball coach.
“At first, it was the paycheck that had me going, but now it’s for the love of those girls and what they do.”
At about the same time Josette met with the student’s mother, her volleyball team had raised about $400 to cover the cost of the extra lunches.
Although the kindhearted coach appreciated the gesture, she would not take the money, instead donating it to the school’s PTA to benefit students who are in need of food.
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Now every student in school can afford their lunches.
It's all in a day's work for a mom who believes compassion comes in many forms.
"Being kind doesn’t have to come in monetary form, just know that if you’re having a good day — someone else is having a bad day and you should fix that."
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