School Custodian Cooks Students Breakfast

A school custodian in Tennessee has cooked breakfast for students with food insecurity the last two decades, WTVC reports.

Walter Thomas has been the custodian at East Lake Academy of Fine Arts in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for nearly 20 years and has cooked breakfast for students and colleagues in the school’s staff break room most days since he began working at the school.

“It’s just what he loves to do, he loves to feed us, he loves to see a smile on your face,” said the school’s principal, Lakesha Carson.

As the surrounding neighborhood is a food desert, the school uses an aquaponic system to grow plants using fish waste and sends the 375 students home with boxes of produce twice a month. The fish waste is used for plant soil, and the plants clean the water as it is cycled back to the fish. In addition to the produce, the students rely on a healthy breakfast from Thomas to help make up for the lack of nutritious food available in their neighborhood.

Carson, with some help from a local law firm and a television news station, thanked Thomas for his years of generosity before the holidays.

“On behalf of News Channel 9 and the McMahan Law Firm, I’d like to pay it forward. Hold your hand out, here’s US$500, to say thank you for all that you have done for us at East Lake Academy, we truly appreciate it,” she told Thomas, who said he was “speechless” and gave Carson a hug.

“I love being around kids, and I just enjoy doing what I do and helping people,” Thomas said.