Kati Jo Christensen — a special education teacher in Utah who may be better known by her TikTok handle, @MrsCactusVibes — is using her online following to make a real difference.
She just has one simple ask to anyone who comes across her videos: Stay for one minute.
It’s all part of her project to raise funds to clear student lunch debt. On TikTok, any person part of the app’s Creator Fund, can monetize any video over one minute in length.
So, Christensen turns her classroom into a stage for just 60 seconds, complete with a Taylor Swift, Panic! At The Disco, Coldplay, ABBA, and Post Malone soundtrack. Many viewers have also been so compelled by her moves to donate directly to her efforts.
“Anything I’m earning off of TikTok is going to the kids,” she said in a recent video. “Whether it’s a product sale, whether it’s a view, whether you’re doing a Venmo donation, all of it goes to them.”
As of this month, she has raised over $11,000 to clear the debts of students in her area.
“These kids can’t learn unless they have food in their bellies, and they’re worrying about their parents paying for it,” Christensen told The Salt Lake Tribune. “I just want to make sure that these kids aren’t feeling the weight of adult problems when they’re only in elementary.”
For the current school year, nine states across the country have legislation in place to provide universal free meals to students, but an estimated 30.4 million students nationwide still cannot afford their meals.
Instead of having the students go hungry, most schools will still feed them, but their families are left with a debt that follows them through their educational careers.
“Every time that child eats that kind of amount of how much the lunch or breakfast is, [it] goes on their school account saying that they owe so much money,” Christensen explained to The Salt Lake Tribune.
“With the deficit, it just kind of continues to rise until that parent is able to pay it off.”
Utah schools have amassed $2.8 million in school lunch debt, per the Tribune, and last year, Governor Spencer Cox announced he would use $1.2 million in federal funds to begin to alleviate some of those balances.
State lawmakers also just passed a bill to provide free meals to eligible students, with the State Board of Education required to reimburse schools for the cost.
But right now, the current debts still remain.
“They’ll get to the point where they’re trying to graduate and get their diploma,” Christensen said of the students who still have debt. “But they can’t get that diploma until they’ve paid off all of their fees and lunch dues.”
Her TikTok dances are a grassroots way to help move the needle just a little bit faster.
She started with a goal of paying off her own school’s balance of $4,000. She saw some small successes and donations from friends and family, but after one video went viral, she met her goal within a week.
Now, she’s connecting with other area schools to pay off their balances. With the funds she’s raised so far, she’s onto school number four.
“I want to keep going with this,” Christensen said in a recent video. “I want to keep our communities working together, because sometimes that’s all we really have left — is our communities. So, let’s keep going. We have a lot of work to do.”
Header images courtesy of Kati Jo Christensen/TikTok
