The holiday season is all about giving. From warm hugs to fresh-baked cookies to the biggest, most elaborate present under the Christmas tree, there is nothing like the feeling of brightening someone’s day. Accordingly, the holidays often become an opportunity for caring souls to dispense random acts of kindness, just like the one that occurred recently at H.W. Good Elementary school in western Pennsylvania and Stubbs Elementary school in Wilmington, Delaware. A Secret Santa came into the schools and paid off the meal balances for several underprivileged children who had run up unpaid meals on their accounts. Members of the school administrative staff have called it a holiday miracle.
Amy Larcinese, the principal at H.W. Good Elementary School in Herminie, Pennsylvania, told local news outlet KDKA-TV that, sadly, there are a number of students whose families can’t afford to maintain their cafeteria accounts being paid daily for the two meals kids get in school each day. This unpaid balance creates additional financial stress on families that undoubtedly already have plenty of it. All together, the Secret Santa helped forty-four children. He also paid for a month’s worth of meals for one pupil who had an especially high unpaid balance, ensuring that the student can eat without worries for several weeks. Larcinese, who says that she was sworn to secrecy about the donor’s identity, said that the Santa had a child who used to attend Good and wanted to do something for the school.
Meanwhile, in Wilmington, Delaware, Jeffers Brown, principal of Stubbs Elementary says that an anonymous donor wrote a check to to the District’s Child Nutrition Services Department on behalf of Stubbs to pay off the school’s total unpaid cafeteria balanced of $$1,283.07. “We have families that struggle to pay their bills during the holidays, and this incredible gift provides welcome relief to many of our parents,” Principal Brown told NBC10. “Knowing their children’s outstanding meal balance has been paid will make the season a lot brighter for them.”