Kindergartner empties piggy bank so classmates can have milk

Sunshine Oelfke of Ishpeming, Michigan, emptied out her piggy bank and began counting up her loose change.

The piggy bank, labeled “Saving up for my first Arctic Cat,” contained about $30.

“She was saving for a new Arctic Cat snowmobile, but now will share the fund with helping her friends with milk money,” Sunshine’s grandmother posted on Facebook.

Sunshine’s friend, Layla, went without milk every day during school snack time because she couldn’t afford the milk that costs 45 cents a carton, CBS news reports.

“My friend’s mom doesn’t have milk money, but I do,” Sunshine told her grandmother, Jackie Oelfke.

Sunshine, 5, lives with her grandmother, CBS reports, as her mom is a drug addict who has been in and out of prison.

“She’s going to have enough issues growing up with this,” Oelfke told CBS. “I’ve never told her she can’t do something, and I didn’t want to start now.”

So, Sunshine and her grandmother took the $30 to Sunshine’s class to hand to the teacher at Birchview Elementary School in Michigan.

“Milk is important in our family, so it’s very important for Sunshine’s friends to have milk with her,” Oelfke said.

After dropping Sunshine off at school, Oelfke posted a tearful video on Facebook, explaining the milk money mission.

Since then, Oelfke has started a GoFundMe page, which is raising money for Sunshine’s class. As of Sunday, Oct. 15, Sunshine has raised enough money to buy milk for every classmate for all of the second semester, mid-January through June.

This story was originally published October 18, 2017 at 8:43 AM with the headline "Kindergartner empties piggy bank so classmates can have milk."