A new Utah license plate could soon help feed students across the state. The Utah Lunch Debt Relief Foundation is working with the DMV to launch a specialty plate by July 1, with proceeds going toward paying off student lunch debt.
DJ Bracken, founder of the Utah Lunch Debt Relief Foundation, said the idea came from a friend. "My friend David Moody had a clever idea. What if we made a license plate that feeds kids in Utah, one that pays off lunch debt," Bracken said.
Bracken founded the nonprofit after FOX 13's initial reporting on Utah's growing school lunch debt problem in 2023. He said the issue is one that doesn't make sense to him.
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"We provide everything else at school, the buses that get them there, the building, the desks, but I guess they don't need food to learn, right? It just doesn't make any sense," Bracken said.
A sample of the proposed plate is available on the Utah Lunch Debt Relief Foundation's website. Bracken said the timeline is on track. "We're planning on launching that. We're working with the DMV to submit it July 1st, and it'll be ready," Bracken said.
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The license plate is one of several solutions that have emerged since FOX 13's first report on lunch debt in Utah. At a recent event, a 5th-grade student at Entheos Academy in Kearns took his own initiative to raise money to pay off his school's outstanding lunch debt.
Liam Whitney said the effort was not easy. "Difficult," Liam said when asked if the fundraising was hard. "Like making the fliers and stuff."
When asked how many fliers he made, Liam said he made "probably a gajillion."
Bracken said he hopes the growing momentum leads to a permanent solution. "I love that we got to do this, but I don't want to do it again next year. I want to be able to show up and say there's no school lunch debt," Bracken said.
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This story was originally published by John Franchi with the Scripps News Group station in Salt Lake City.
