When 9-year-old Ryan Kyote learned that some children could struggle with school meals because of unpaid lunch balances, he could not understand why money should stand between a child and a meal.

The third grader from Napa, California, began asking his mother, Kylie Kirkpatrick, questions about how school meal debt worked.

His mother contacted the local school district and learned that students would continue receiving meals even when their accounts had outstanding balances, although families could still owe money.

Ryan then wondered how much was owed by his entire third-grade class.

The answer was $74.50.

Ryan had been carefully saving his allowance, money he could have used to buy things for himself. But after learning about his classmates’ outstanding balances, he decided he wanted to use his savings to help them instead.

He took his $74.50 to West Park Elementary School and paid the outstanding lunch balances for his third-grade classmates.

According to reports, Ryan did not want recognition for what he had done. He simply wanted to help other children.

What began as one young student’s decision eventually attracted attention far beyond his school.

Later in 2019, California Gov. Gavin Newsom publicly recognized Ryan during the signing of legislation addressing how schools handle unpaid meal charges.

Ryan’s contribution was small in dollar amount, but its meaning was much larger.

He had seen something that did not seem fair to him and decided to do something about it with the money he had saved himself.

His story became a reminder that kindness does not always begin with adults, large organizations or major donations.

Sometimes it begins with a child asking a simple question:

“Why should another kid have to worry about this?”

Ryan had $74.50.

And he chose to share it.

Source: California Governor Gavin Newsom – Official website