Josette Duran knew what it was like to need food and a place to stay. So when her son asked her to pack lunch for another child, the request connected with an experience she understood firsthand.
In 2016, Dylan Duran, then 14, noticed a classmate eating only a fruit cup at lunchtime. He asked his mother to send a second lunch to school.
That simple request became part of their morning routine in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
A second lunch, with encouragement inside
Speaking directly to ABC News in October 2016, Duran said she initially wondered whether Dylan needed more food himself. He explained that the extra meal was for another boy.
She began sending sandwiches and snacks. Sometimes she included encouraging messages on sticky notes, adding a personal touch to the food.
Duran said the classmate’s mother eventually thanked her at school and offered to repay her. She declined the money.
“To us, we were just doing something normal,” she told ABC News.
The school chose to remain unnamed in that report, and the other child’s identity was not disclosed.
She remembered needing help herself
In a separate interview with Us Weekly, Duran described a period when she and Dylan had stayed in their car, hotels and friends’ homes. They had struggled to get enough food.
Helping another family carried a meaning rooted in that history.
Her girls’ volleyball team also wanted to contribute. Contemporary reporting from ClickOrlando described a fundraiser of more than $400 intended to reimburse her for the lunches. Instead, Duran directed the money toward overdue cafeteria accounts.
According to Duran’s account reported at the time, those past-due balances were cleared.
What began with Dylan noticing one classmate’s lunch grew into support for other students. The first step had been small enough to fit in a school backpack: one more meal, packed because a child asked someone to help.
This story concerns events reported in October 2016. Sources: ABC News, Us Weekly and ClickOrlando. The cafeteria debt outcome is attributed to Duran’s account at the time.