Nifty Kid, 8, Raises Money For School Lunch For Everyone (Hey, Michigan: He Shouldn't Have To!)

Let's have a round of applause for 8-year-old Cayden Taipalus of Howell, Michigan, who did a pretty awesome thing with a little help from his mom. One day at lunch, Cayden saw another kid being served the Poverty Lunch -- a slice of American Cheese on plain bread -- because the other kid's lunch account was in arrears by more than $5. You know, there's no free lunch, gotta teach responsibility, can't let people get away with being moochers. But instead of triumphantly writing in his Junior Objectivist Journal about how good it felt to know that he had Responsible Parents, Cayden felt bad for the other kid, and told his mom about what happened and asked her what could be done. His mom, Amber Peters*, also failed to tell Cayden it's a hard world but you have to be tough on Those People, and so instead they decided to start a little fundraiser, calling it “Pay it Forward — No Kid Goes Hungry.”

Yes, we'll wait while you get a tissue.

And so Cayden put the touch on friends and family, made noise on Facebook, and collected returnable bottles and cans, eventually raising enough to bring all the school's delinquent accounts up to a positive balance. It took $64 to do that. You know, the kind of money that some kids would blow on a videogame cartridge andsmokespenny candy.

After that, he set up an online fundraiser (we bet mom helped again) that has so far collected over $13,000 to feed hungry kids in his town. Not just his school, but at all six elementary schools in the area. His next goal is to collect enough money to cover lunches throughout the county.

As far as we know, not a single one of Cayden's classmates has turned down a hot lunch because it wasn't in a brown paper bag, or because they fear becoming dependent on handouts. Of course, we've already seen a blog post (autoplay video at link) proclaiming that Cayden "solved a problem the federal government couldn't," and so the answer is obviously for hungry kids everywhere to just start an online fundraiser.

Or maybe, just maybe, we could just follow Boston's lead and give every child a goddamn lunch, so we wouldn't have to rely on eight-year-olds or the local rich guy to solve problems created by adults who can't bear the thought of a single nickel in higher taxes.

It's a thought.

* Cue Daily Caller comments: WHERE'S THE FATHER???

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