Lilly Cowart, is a sixth grader in Spokane Washington. One day she saw one of her classmates getting a different lunch than everyone else. Her friend admitted that it's because her parents can't afford to buy her lunch everyday and she has a debt with the school. Until her balance is paid off she would have to have the no frills lunch.
Lilly asked her classmate if there were other kids in the same situation. Her classmate pointed out dozens of kids around the cafeteria eating the same no frills lunch.
Lilly came home and spoke to her dad about the issue. "I'm thinking, 'Okay, a couple hundred dollars," said Andrew Cowart, Lilly's father.
He went to talk to the school's lunch coordinator and found out how many students at just that school were behind on their payments. It was about 100 families and thousands of dollars!
"It absolutely blew my mind! I came back to her and said, 'Honey, I can't help. It's too big of a problem.' And she said, 'There's got to be a way we can do it.'"
Lilly started asking people at her church to donate to a fund. She was able to raise close to a thousand dollars in about a month.
Her dad saw how much this meant to his daughter and is a GM of a local car dealership so he then spoke to his sales staff. They decided to donate a portion of their car sales to the fund. Soon Lilly and friends had raised $10,000! She and her father just donated all of it to the Spokane School District’s benevolence fund.
Their generosity will help about 100 families not only pay off their debts but pay for their lunches for the year! Lilly was thrilled to make the presentation of the check! "Jesus was right! It really is better to give than to receive! I haven't been able to knock this smile off my face all day."