Student asks mom to pack 2 school lunches
Then, one day, she asked the 14-year-old whether he was not feeling full with just one lunch. "He said, 'No, Mom. It's for this little boy at school, and he sits by himself, and all he eats is a fruit cup.'"
She continued making the extra lunch until she was called into the school’s principal’s office and was told the boy’s mother -- who just got a new job -- wanted to pay her back.
“She says, ‘I know this isn’t much, but I just got a job, and I know you’ve been feeding my son,”
Duran, who used to live in her car with her son and washed him in bathrooms, found out that the boy’s mother could not afford lunch and would send the boy to school with a fruit cup. When the woman offered to pay her back, she refused to take the woman’s money.
The girls' volleyball team Duran coaches also raised more than $400 to pay her back, but she took that money straight to the cafeteria.
"We paid up all the past due accounts for all the kids who need lunch," Duran said as she choked back tears. "So now, nobody in that school owes any money, and now everyone can eat."
Duran found out the little boy's mom lost her job and couldn't afford to pay for his school lunches. It's something, Duran says, she knows all too well.
"This hits home to me because a few years ago, me and my son were homeless," Duran said. "I was living in my car and I was washing him in bathrooms. And we didn't have food."
Not only has Duran taught this school a valuable lesson in compassion and kindness, she's also created a new friendship.
"I have friends, and I'm doing better in school, and you have a great son, and he's my best friend," Duran said.