LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – A Gwinnett County Sheriff’s deputy and his wife are making Christmas a little brighter for more than 100 kids at Central Gwinnett High School.

Cpl. Matt Stoner and his wife Gabriela opted to forego Christmas presents this year and instead spend their money on local students struggling to pay for their school lunches, Fox 5 reports.

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“Their family had quietly made the decision not to buy Christmas presents for each other this year, instead creating a special family memory by doing something to help others,” the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office posted to Facebook.

“Gabriela researched local schools and selected a school that had a significant number of students receiving free or reduced meals. She called the school and paid off every delinquent account for the entire school to help those struggling families and to allow those students to start the new year debt free with full meal privileges.”

In total, the Stoners spent $280. The couple attempted to keep their generosity under wraps, but word quickly spread.

“They were really shocked and a little horrified that this was going to be something that people were going to hear about,” Shannon Volkodav, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department, told the Gwinnett Daily Post.

Volkodav explained that students who owe money for lunches are denied a full meal in Gwinnett schools and instead served a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and water. Between 100 and 150 students were past due on their lunch accounts.

“Now these kids can start the New Year with a full lunch,” Volkodav said, adding that the Stoners’ are now inspiring others to step up, including another deputy who is planning to pay off lunches at different school.

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“This gift just keeps on giving,” Volkodav said. “That’s what I love the most about people who choose to do things like this.”

The Georgia couple aren’t the first ones this Christmas season to put local students before themselves.

An anonymous “secret Santa” in Herminie, Pennsylvania paid off past due lunch accounts for dozens of students at H.W. Good Elementary in early December, Fox 8 reports.

A man who did not want to be identified wrote a check for $864 to clear the accounts of more than 40 kids. He also funded one student’s lunches for the rest of the school year, according to the news site.

“This time of year can be a financial burden,” Yough School District superintendent Janet Sardon said. “His intent was to relieve that burden a little bit.”

“Thank you so much for making a difference in the lives of our students,” she said.