School receives over $22K in donations after throwing away lunches for students in debt

Hundreds of people have donated more a total of over $22,800 to a Minnesota school after a video showed cafeteria workers throwing away hot meals for students who had outstanding debt and replacing them with cold lunches, CNN reported.

Approximately 40 students at Richfield High School who had an outstanding balance of at least $15 had their lunches thrown in the garbage before school officials stepped in, Richfield Public Schools told CNN. The school faced blowback after a video of the workers wasting the food spread on social media.

The Richfield School District issued an apology after the video surfaced last week.

{mosads} “We deeply regret our actions today and the embarrassment that it caused several of our students. We have met with some of the students involved and apologized to them. High school administration will also be meeting with student government this week to talk about the situation and listen to what students have to say,” the school district shared in a statement, asking people to donate to the “Sunshine Meal Account” to pay for student lunches.

The school district confirmed to CNN that more than $22,800 in donations has poured in to help students as of Tuesday. A local church, Passion Church, also pledged to donate $10,000 over the course of a year, bringing the pledged amount to more than $32,000 to feed students, CNN reported. The school has also been contacted by the Philando Castile Relief Foundation and other charitable organizations.

“We are extremely grateful to our local community, as well as people across the country, for their generosity. Because of them, we are able to pay off current meal debt and have some reserves for the remainder of the school year,” said a statement from the district Tuesday, CNN reported.

The district had more than $19,669 in outstanding lunch balances, according to its initial statement last week.

Passion Church’s lead pastor, Jonathan Brozozog, said in a video shared earlier this week, “My question is, how can a church like ours, who says they love God, stand by and let this happen? That’s why we want to do something about it, because when everything is said and done, we want to be a church where there’s more done than said.”

The Hill has reached out to the Richfield School District for comment.