A small community that was hard-hit by the pandemic received a helping hand from the local high school that opened a grocery store for struggling families.
Sanger, Texas (15 December 2020) – Sanger, a small town in Texas, has been hit hard by the economic problems caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic. The town saw a rise in struggling families, so the high school students set up a grocery store filled with food donations.
The best part about the grocery store is that students and their families use good deeds as currency to purchase food or essentials from the grocery store. In an interview with CNN, school principal Anthony Love explained how many of his students were now considered disadvantaged or homeless.
“In our school district, there’s roughly 2,750 students enrolled and throughout the district 43% of these students are considered economically disadvantaged,”
“About 3.6% of our students are considered homeless. We thought it was important to support them and their families and make sure they had food on the table.” – Anthony Love
Students run all aspects of the shop, from stocking the shelves, taking inventory, helping students find what they need and bagging the groceries. The involvement of students means they get valuable work experience at the same time.
The food in the shop is funded by a local ministry, a big grocery-store Albertsons and the Texas Health Resource.
Preston Westbrook has been working as a store manager in the shop when he isn’t completing his junior year at the school. He says he has witnessed the community come together because of the store.
“I love this school, I help out in everything we do. And I’m a helper, it’s just what I do. I’m here to make sure students get what they need,”
“The store helped bring families’ spirits up during the pandemic, especially for people who lost family members. The students who come in are just so happy, they always have a smile on their face.” – Preston Westbrook
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South Africa, We Have SO Much Good News to Share With You!Each student is allocated a points limit which is determined by the size of their family. Once they have accumulated the points, they can do a full shop.
Points are earned for good academics, helping fellow students and teachers, completing jobs around the school, helping in the library and mentoring students from the elementary school.
The programme has been a massive success, and many other school districts have asked to model their own grocery stores on this project.
Here in South Africa, we have similar concepts, with children being able to hand in recyclables for points. You can read about FreshStart here.
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