Amazing KC Kids: Meet Mikey Hermon, founder of Mikey’s Meals

Imagine you’re a student sitting in class, trying to focus on what the teacher is saying. Your stomach is growling, knowing that lunchtime is right around the corner. After what seems like an eternity, the bell rings and there’s a mad rush for the cafeteria. You fill up your tray, and head to the cashier…only to be told that you don’t have any money in your lunch account to pay for the food. So you leave the tray, and slink out of the cafeteria, hoping no one sees you.

Unfortunately, this is reality for many children in the Kansas City area. And it was this scenario that motivated now-13-year-old Mikey Hermon to want to do something to help kids in his very own school.

One day, in the fall of 2017, Mikey and his mom, Jennifer, were talking about the fact that there are kids in his Olathe middle school that don’t have enough money to buy lunch. Mikey had witnessed this on occasion, and knew he wanted to do something to help. “I’d seen kids go to the cashier and find out they don’t have money on their card to pay for lunch. Then they have to get saltine crackers at the nurse’s office,” he said.

This is how Mikey’s Meals came into being. Mikey and Jennifer did their research and learned that his school, Indian Trail Middle School, needed approximately $500 a year to cover lunches for students who don’t have money in their account. Sometimes reduced-price lunch is still hard for families to manage, or families don’t qualify for reduced lunch, but still struggle to make ends meet. They set up a Go Fund Me page and spread the word on Facebook. In just a short time, they raised $250 to donate to another Olathe school – Oregon Trail Middle School, which wiped out their lunch debt for one semester!

This little bit of momentum propelled Mikey to do all he could to raise more money. With the help of a teacher and counselor at Indian Trail, he created a video to enter Lifestyle Publication’s Elevate Kindness contest. The contest encourages middle-schoolers to put their kindness ideas into action. They also made posters to hang around school, advertising the contest and asking students to vote. Mikey’s mom continued to update Facebook with contest reminders, and in March of 2018, Mikey’s Meals won the Elevate Kindness contest and received $1,000! What’s more impressive? Instead of keeping the prize money for himself (which was allowed under the contest rules), he immediately donated half of his winnings to Indian Trail! Of the money he’d put in savings, he recently donated $200 to the flood relief efforts in Nebraska, where his grandparents live.

Since winning the contest, Mikey and Jennifer have been thinking about new ways to raise money and how to get more publicity for Mikey’s Meals. This August, Mikey will be a freshman at Olathe South High School. His next goal is to spread the word around high school, and continue to raise money so he can help the students there.

So, how can you help? Check out Mikey’s Meals website and like their page on Facebook. You could also consider donating to his Go Fund Me page. Even if you can’t donate money, Mikey says that sharing the information about his social media sites would help immensely! Every little bit helps. Every child deserves to have a hot lunch at school.

 

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Commerce Bank and Kansas City Moms Blog are proud to offer the Amazing Kid series! Featured Kansas City kids will receive a $100 investment from Commerce to help with their endeavors. Do you know an amazing kid who deserve recognition for their invention, entrepreneurship, volunteerism or advocacy work? Let us know at info {at} kansascitymomsblog.com

 

jenc
Jen was born and raised in Overland Park. After going to Indiana University for college, then living in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, she grew exhausted of circling for a parking spot and headed back home to be near family. She and her husband Matt are parents to a 10 year-old boy and a 8 year-old girl. Jen teaches kindergarten and her husband teaches high school, so they wonder how they’ll relate to their kids during the middle school years. She spends her free time cheering on the Chiefs, Royals, and Hoosiers, hanging out with family, laughing with her teacher friends, and fostering a love/hate relationship with boxing. She also loves traveling, Target, coffee, wine, sunflowers and all things pop culture.