Teen Cashier Saving For College Paid Customer’s Grocery Bill

When a shopper saw a cashier pick up a woman’s $110 grocery bill she was struggling to pay Monday, she shared what happened on Facebook.

It’s now been liked and shared about 2,000 times.

“Tuesday night I was up until 11 looking at the comments on the post,” John Lopez Jr. said. “I was like this can’t be real.”

The 19-year-old cashier took a job at the Walmart in Princeton in March to earn money to go to college. He saves most of what he makes, but made an exception to help the woman in need.

“She started crying and I was like ‘okay I got you – I got you’,” Lopez Jr. said. “I just felt in my heart that the lord told me I had to help her.”

“That’s just my son,” Josefa Lopez said. “We tell him always to help people.”

“My parents basically taught me if someone needs help you should be able to help them and if someone is down, bring them up,” Lopez Jr. said.

During the holidays, Lopez Jr. likes to spread cheer by volunteering as a Salvation Army bell ringer. He donated a Christmas tree to his church’s choir.

“I make it my goal to at least in one way make someone smile,” Lopez Jr. said.

Keeping the giving spirit alive, the Princeton community is now raising money for John online.

They’ve created a “Merry Christmas for John” GoFundMe page and so far it’s raised more than $2,600.

Lopez said he’s going to put that money away for college.