Social networks can be used for anything other than inveighing against each other. They are also the place of unexpected surges of solidarity, as here with the story of Matteo, 13, a student at a college in Columbus, Ohio in the United States.
It was his mother Elisa who took the initiative to tell on Twitter what she thought was a little anecdote: a week ago, not finding her toaster in the kitchen, she discovered that her son l had hidden in his backpack, and taken to school to offer breakfast to his classmates by toasting them with PopTarts, stuffed sandwiches to warm up.
Apparently my kid got in trouble today for PACKING OUR TOASTER IN HIS BACKPACK and pulling it out at lunch to make pop tarts for his class. I can’t stop laughing.
— Elisa Stone Leahy (@ElisaStoneLeahy) April 13, 2022
Quickly spotted by a teacher, Matteo was summoned, and he explained that he had improvised this distribution after learning that some of his classmates arrived every morning on an empty stomach, without having eaten breakfast. Due to lack of time or resources. As is the case for one in five children in Ohio.
Result: no glue, no warning, Matteo went home with his toaster and in a few hours, the message published by his mother received nearly 800,000 “likes”, tens of thousands of thanks , and above all offers of help. Elisa therefore referred donors to the website of the neighborhood food bank, a small structure, with a small website which in turn found itself inundated with messages and donations. Too many connections, the site crashed.
Well, since we already have interviews lining up (what!!??) , we decided to go ahead a share a pic. Here’s my boy with the sad little toaster and an empty box of @PopTartsUS ! pic.twitter.com/naJSGhGyjy
— Elisa Stone Leahy (@ElisaStoneLeahy) April 15, 2022
And the snowball effect doesn’t stop there. Three days later, it was the maker of the sandwiches, PopTarts, who contacted Elisa to tell her that he had just delivered a whole stock of products to the school and especially to make a donation of 5,000 dollars on behalf of Matteo at the No Children Hungry association. The teenager, he is rather discreet, he responded well to the journalists (like here at NBC) who landed in front of his door but without spreading out.
Life is always more complex than we imagine. In 2018, Matteo survived cancer, spent a year in the hospital and when a stranger offered him $100 to buy toys, he decided to spend it on a game for every child in the cancer department. Generosity breeds generosity. It doesn’t put an end to poverty, but it connects, it brings people together, and it’s already immense.
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