WAUSAU, Wis. — Roughly 30 million students can’t afford their school meals, according to a report by the Education Data Initiative.

With the end of the pandemic-era universal free school lunch program, many school districts are unable to offer free meals. A northeastern Wisconsin pastor is looking to help by canceling some school lunch debt for thousands of students.

Helping others is important for Yauo Yang. He said he knows what it feels like to have to go without it. Yang was born in a Thailand refugee camp. 

“Growing up in the refugee camp, for the first seven years of my life, there just wasn’t enough food, shelter, clothing, medicine, you name it. But one of the things that was really difficult, was also being able to just have enough food,” Yang said.

Yang said even after his family moved to the U.S. in 1987, times were still tight.

“My father worked at a manufacturing job making $25,000 a year and by now, I’m the oldest of nine kids,” Yang said.

After joining the Wisconsin National Guard and serving in Iraq, Yang became a pastor and started the Cross Church. He now has six kids in the Wausau School District and said he understands the frustrations some parents face paying for school meals. So, Yang started a GoFundMe for families struggling to pay their kids’ school lunch debt.

“It’s one of those basic rates where all students should be able to go to school and have food to eat so that they can just be academically successful,” Yang said.

The GoFundMe helped raise money to pay off student meal debts for the Wausau and D.C. Everest School Districts.

Yang said the combined debt was around $20,000.

“The school lunch that affects over 500 families in the Wausau School District. I was just really flabbergasted,” Yang said.

Karen Fochs, Wausau’s school nutrition service director, said most students with lunch debt fall right on the threshold of qualifying for free or reduced meals. 

“What we do notice with our high negative meal balances is that those families who fall within a few $100 up to $1,000 of that cutoff of the reduced meal eligibility, those are the families that struggle the most,” Fochs said. 

Fochs said all students with debt were still able to eat. She said she appreciates Yang’s act of generosity.

“We are just so thankful for him and his thoughtfulness for all of those students and families. He is going to help a lot of people,” Fochs said.

In seven days, over $26,000 was raised. Yang said he’s grateful to have the opportunity to give back to his community.

“For me, the greatest feeling in the world is to be able to make a difference and help to make somebody’s life that much better,” Yang said.