In the movie version of The Blind Side, Leigh Anne Tuohy attends a volleyball game in which her 16-year-old daughter, Collins, is playing at Wingate Christian School. Leigh Ann is there with her husband, Sean, and ten-year-old son, SJ. During a time-out, Sean notices a person sitting by himself far up in the bleachers, and his son tells him that it's a boy named Big Mike who attends Wingate. Later, after the game, Sean notices that Big Mike is moving through the bleachers picking up half-eaten bags of popcorn.

Later in the story, Sean sees Michael in the Wingate cafeteria sitting with no food in front of him. Sean goes over to him and asks what Michael ate for lunch. Michael refuses to take money from Sean, but Sean tells Coach Cotton to put Michael on a semester lunch program and to add it to Sean's bill. The coach is surprised that Sean can tell that Michael is hungry, but Sean explains that he grew up in a way that was similar to the way Michael is growing up. He also explains that public schools have free lunch programs, unlike Wingate, and that if you don't have food growing up, you spend a lot of time thinking about how to get some food.