An anonymous family in Saint-Michel, a town of about 3,200 in the Charente region of France, won €50 million on the EuroMillions lottery in 2009, or about $54 million.
Their first move was to donate nearly €400,000 to the town’s “Housing for All” scheme and clear the debt of a local nursing home.
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Starting in 2010, they began covering the costs of the local school’s cafeteria, about $86,000 a year, which paid for upgrades to the facilities and free meals for around 180 students. At the time, that single donation equaled 20% of the town’s entire annual budget.
They’ve kept it up every year since.
For 2026, according to Connexion France, the $86,000 is being redirected from daily lunches to work on the school building, including air conditioning and soundproofing.
Families will now pay €1.50 per meal (about $1.60).
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Saint-Michel’s mayor, Fabienne Godichaud, told Connexion France the family’s wish “has now translated into a capital investment, addressing the reality that our schools no longer meet current standards regarding acoustics, air conditioning, or, at the very least, summer comfort.”
Godichaud said it was like a fairy tale to watch the whole community benefit from one family’s windfall.
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Nobody in Saint-Michel knows who they are. Locals have filled a guestbook at the town hall with messages to them anyway.
“I explained to my children the beauty of your gesture and the fact that such generosity is the mark of people with huge hearts,” one mother wrote.
