Some students will go to great lengths to avoid eating the food in the school’s cafeteria.
Mom and author Elisa Stone Leahy of Ohio recently got the dreaded call from school about her 13-year-old son’s behavior in the lunch room. Since Mateo is a known prankster, she braced herself for the worst. But when she heard what he’d done, she burst out laughing!
Yep, that’s right! The resourceful young man crammed a full-sized toaster into his backpack and fired it up in the cafeteria. Elisa explained that the family kitchen is being remodeled, so she had purchased a bunch of convenience foods that could be prepared in the microwave or toaster, including Pop-Tarts.
“I guess he saw how many we had and figured we had plenty to share!” she tweeted.
Her tweets quickly caught fire on Twitter, and before long she had thousands of strangers who were totally invested in her son’s Pop-Tart-slinging story.
“Ok, I hear that the teacher actually only told him not to ‘make a habit of it.’ So I wonder how many times makes a habit? I also wonder if I should hide the popcorn popper…” she wrote in the thread.
Elisa soon passed along the full scoop: Mateo had pulled out the toaster, plugged it in, and started toasting Pop-Tarts for anyone who wanted them. He gave them out for free, just because!
The proud mom shared that “this story really captures” who her son is as a person. He’s mischievous and generous, sometimes to a fault. He’s also a cancer survivor who once used money someone gifted him to buy toys for other sick kids.
“He’s 13, a man of few words, a bit of a prankster, very sweet,” Elisa tweeted. “A few [years] ago someone gave him $100 as a gift when he started cancer treatment. He asked to go buy Lego sets that he could give to other kids in the hospital. 5 years later, he’s just as sweet and no signs of cancer.”
When Elisa realized the story had gotten huge online, she decided to use her amplified voice to help others, just as her son always does. She threw out the idea of donating Pop-Tarts or other items to a local food bank, tweeting out the link to one near their home in central Ohio.
This is our local food bank: https://t.co/PVjhoqENQ5 I used to walk there with my toddlers in a little red wagon and load up on food. If you are able, donate, if you’re not, please know that I get it. I’ve been there. It’s okay to be on that side too.
– Elisa Stone Leahy (@ElisaStoneLeahy) April 14, 2022
Within hours, the Mid-Ohio Food Collective had received so much web traffic that their website crashed! Elisa put out another link, and that food back started to fill up, too!
From there, the story continued to spiral in the best way possible. Pop-Tarts reached out to Elisa and offered free Pop Tarts for their family, her son’s school, and a generous donation to No Kid Hungry!
In April, Pop Tarts made good on their promise. The family came home from a vacation to find boxes of the toaster treats stacked on their doorstep. The school also received enough Pop-Tarts for every student to have one. He and his sister got to hand them out!
One more update: today every student at my kids’ school got an afternoon treat courtesy of @PopTartsUS! Here’s Mateo and his sister Rosali handing out PopTarts. 😊Thanks Twitterverse for making all these kids feel like rock stars! pic.twitter.com/pghcQDMf2K
– Elisa Stone Leahy (@ElisaStoneLeahy) April 30, 2022
This sweet young man couldn’t resist his urge to share his Pop-Tart bounty with his classmates. Now hundreds of other families will have food in their pantry because of his impulsive act of kindness. Well done, Mateo!
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