14-year-old raises $8K to pay off student lunch debt in Austin

AUSTIN, Texas (KTRK) -- A 14-year-old has pledged to eliminate the sizable lunch debt for a district of 129 schools in Texas.

Ben Hofer, an eighth-grade student at St. Andrews Episcopal School, recently raised $8,000 for a project he's dubbed, "LunchCounts!" He plans on putting the money towards nearly $18,000 of school lunch debt in the Austin Independent School District (Austin ISD).

"I was never expecting to raise this much money, really, honestly," Ben told Good Morning America. "It's pretty crazy but the more the better because it's more kids we could pay off."

Ben kicked off his initiative on GoFundMe on April 21 as part of a semester-long school project in which students dig into a community issue.

You can donate here.