School can be stressful enough for students who are just trying to finish their homework and do well in their classes. Things become significantly more difficult for children who don't have stable home lives, or who are experiencing poverty.
Now, one school is combating these issues by opening up a general store for their students to use, free of charge.
"Even before the pandemic, we had high poverty, but the pandemic has really impacted a lot of our families," he explained to the news outlet.
The blessing in the shape of a store was organized by Jasmine Crowe, the founder of Goodr — an organization dedicated to stopping food waste and combating childhood hunger.
She told the news outlet that she's been hosting pop-up grocery stores in food deserts for five years now, but this is the first permanent one, thanks to Gunnar's financial commitment.
The store, called "Gunna's Drip Closet and Goodr Grocery Store" provided every single student with a reusable grocery bag to use while shopping at the store, and for their own personal use.
The system works by allowing parents to place order requests through Goodr's website that their children will pick up the following day.
Jasmine told Today that the store had already received several requests in their first few days.
"To see those first requests, every single one of them asking for food, that was life-changing for me," she said. "Because that's when I knew what we were doing was necessary."
This is such a wonderful idea, and I hope it can be implemented in more schools soon!
h/t: Today
