A Utah dad is offering to pay for your license plate while he fights school lunch debt

D.J. Bracken has been paying off Utah kids’ school lunch debt with his own money. He had learned about the $2.8 million statewide tab in 2024, and couldn’t imagine his 7-year-old daughter going hungry or accumulating debt just to eat lunch.

Bracken created the Utah Lunch Debt Relief foundation to help. But it’s just gotten worse — school lunch debt in Utah surpassed $3.6 million in 2025, a 31% increase from 2024 and a 90% rise since 2023, according to data gathered by FOX13.

Now he has a new idea. He’s offering to pay for license plates for 500 Utahns, funding their preorders so his foundation can apply for a special group license plate to raise money for lunch debt.

“Theoretically, if we get enough people across the state, this is the kind of thing that could raise millions of dollars for lunch debt a year,” Bracken said. “Something that you just pay 20 bucks once a year, and it has a huge impact.”

Using a grant, his foundation will cover the initial costs for the first 500 plates. Then the vehicle owners who take him up on his offer will cover the annual renewal fee, he said.

Paying the steep fees charged by the state Motor Vehicle Division (DMV) to create a special group license plate is a costly endeavor, but Bracken believes the payoff will be worth the investment.

When he learned of the 2024 debt, “I just could not believe that number,” said Bracken, whose daughter attends school in the Jordan School District. “It honestly made me angry even thinking about it.”

Getting a special license plate approved

Jason Gardner, deputy executive director of the Utah State Tax Commission, which oversees the DMV, said the law allows a sponsoring group to pay the fees for the first 500 plates.

However, vehicle owners must still pay the yearly fee — at least $25, depending on the amount the group sets — along with their regular registration costs to keep the plate, Gardner said.

“This is important because if an entity does not maintain more than 500 vehicles actively registered with the plate, the plate is discontinued,” Gardner said.

Gardner outlined several costs involved in creating a special group license plate in Utah, including:

• The sponsoring group must pay $3,900 to add the new plate to the state’s system and update websites.

• There’s a design fee for creating a plate that meets Utah’s standards. This fee can range from $10,000 to $17,000, depending on how complicated the design is.

• The group also needs to collect 500 paid preorders. Each preorder requires a $25 contribution, so that means raising at least $12,500 before the plate can be approved. Additional costs include a $12.50 special plate fee, a registration replacement fee and postage to mail the plate, according to the DMV website.

Sixty-six special license plates are listed as active on the DMV website, either raising funds for specific causes or honoring groups of people. Nine plates are no longer issued, including the Ski Utah plate and one created for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

Bracken said he has collected nearly a third of the 500 preorders needed, largely through promoting the campaign on social media. To get one of the free plates, Utahns can fill out a form his foundation has set up on its website.

Since the foundation’s inception, Bracken said, it has raised over $130,000 to clear lunch debts at more than 30 Utah schools.

But donations are not enough to keep paying off the debt long term, he said, so the license plates are meant to be a steady way to keep funding the cause.

Efforts to curb school lunch debt

Lawmakers have taken steps to help curb the debt in recent years.

Gov. Spencer Cox redirected $1.2 million in COVID-19 relief funds in 2024 to help pay off school lunch debt. He also signed HB100 in March, which ensures students in families who qualified for reduced school lunch prices now get meals for free.

Bracken said his foundation helped advocate for the bill, but added that while it offers some relief, it is “unfortunately, again, not nearly enough to make a dent.”

Eventually, Bracken hopes to see Utah eliminate school lunch debt by enacting free school lunch programs.

Nine U.S. states have adopted statewide policies for universal free school meals, including California, Colorado and New Mexico in the West. Utah is one of 14 states that have not taken that statewide stance or introduced free school breakfast, according to the Food Research and Action Center.

In Utah, policies around school lunch debt vary by district, Bracken said. Some districts send collection notices to parents of students who haven’t paid for lunch, he said, while others don’t.

And in some cases, students with unpaid lunch debt are given a separate cold lunch instead of the hot meal served to paying students, he said.

“It’s cruel for kids who can’t control any of this,” Bracken said. “The fact that this is happening anywhere, [and] in Utah, of all places. A prosperous place where we’re winning best state of the year all the time, apparently, but our kids are just accruing debt at an enormous rate.”