At Deer Valley Unified School District in Phoenix, Arizona, students arrived at school and were surprised to see a $0 balance on their lunch accounts. A local Phoenix business called Yoga Cold Bath paid off almost $10,000 in school lunch debt for three schools. The schools were Mountain Ridge High, Sandra Day O'Connor High and Stetson Hills School.
Brooks Maschmeier and his fiancée Sarah Touchstone own Yoga Cold Bath, and they have children in the district. In an interview with ABC15 Arizona, Brooks said, "Instead of just isolating one kid at a time, just pay them all off… This is our community." But this isn't the first time Yoga Cold Bath has helped kids in their community.
On September 6, 2025, Brooks and Sarah held the grand opening for Yoga Cold Bath in North Phoenix. They immediately launched a campaign called "Cold for a Cause." It ran from 12 to 2 PM and was created to support local schools in their community.
"Take the plunge and support our local schools. Every dip helps fund student programs!," they wrote on the Yoga Cold Bath instagram page.
The community came together while students raised money and Yoga Cold Bath matched their donations to local schools. In a short amount of time, the "Cold for a Cause" campaign raised more than $100,000, and it directly benefited students at Sandra Day O'Connor High School, according to Yoga Cold Bath. Another $7,000 was also raised for Stetson Hills School.
Food insecurity among students is a major problem in America. In a 2024 national survey by the School Nutrition Association, 808 school districts reported a combined $17.7 million in unpaid meal debt. And that's only about 6% of the roughly 13,000 school districts in the United States.
Sarah and Brooks said they hope to donate even more in the future, and it looks like they're off to a great start. Thanks to their kindness, many families in Deer Valley now have one less thing to worry about.