The principal of Linda Tutt High School in the small town of Sanger, Texas, said this month that he was approached by an eighth-grader who was eager to tell her that he had bought a three-in-one shampoo, conditioner and body wash for men. has.
“The first thing he did was he said, ‘Hey. Look in my hair,'” principal Anthony Love recalled in an interview Tuesday.
“And so I looked at it, and it looked clean,” Love said. “But he was excited about it, because it was the first time he had ever had his own shampoo.”
The student, who lives with his mother and sister, said he avoided using their shampoo because of the smell, Love said.
But eventually he was able to get his own shampoo, as well as food, at a new grocery store on the school’s campus where students could buy food and other necessities without money.
“It makes you think back to yourself and about some of the things we take for granted, and it helps you put life in perspective,” Love said of the student meeting.
The store, which opened in November, makes canned goods, products, laundry, soap and other products available free of charge to students and faculty members of the school district and the 9,000 residents of Sanger, about 50 miles north of Dallas.
The on-site store was the first of its kind at a high school and was the brainchild of Paul Juarez, executive director of First Refuge Ministries, one of the sponsors of the operation. Juarez, whose non-profit organization provides free medical, dental, mental health advice and food, has worked in the grocery industry for about 20 years. This is where he got his first job as a pack clerk at the age of 16.
“If we can make our food cupboards look like a grocery store” and give people a ticket to shop with like anywhere else, Juarez said, “then we can maintain dignity in people.”
Juarez’s idea came about with an award from Texas Health Resources, which identifies Sanger as a food insecure area.
About 43 percent of the students in the Sanger Independent School District are considered economically disadvantaged. About 2,750 students are enrolled in the school district, of which 3.6 percent are considered homeless, Love said.
“That was before Covid happened,” he said. “So I can only imagine that the number is much higher.”
The store is open three days a week for students and district workers and Tuesday evenings for the rest of the community.
Instead of money, buyers use points. All students receive marks based on the size of their families. A small family – with three or fewer people in the household – gets 40 points and a large family with six or more people gets 65 points. The bigger the family, the more points. The points are replenished every week.
Items in the grocery store cost one to three points.
“They can buy a lot of items with the points,” Love said.
Students can earn more points through positive office referrals from staff members for ‘excellent’ performance in the classroom or around the school building, Love said. Students can also earn points on campus, such as in the school garden or as mentors or assistants.
Love said the school requires students to apply for the job to gain real experience and learn responsibility.
“There is an application they have to fill out. They have to have two referrals. They have to pass,” he said.
Juarez said the scoring system is aimed at preventing anyone from feeling embarrassed about needing help.
“It will not embarrass them that they have to go to a pantry from time to time,” he said.
The high school has also partnered with the grocery business Albertsons to open the store, which is run entirely by students who have shelves in stock, maintain inventory, check customers and buy groceries. The store employs five students, including three store managers.
One of the principals, Preston Westbrook, an 11th grader at Linda Tutt High School, said the work was rewarding.
“It makes me feel better that they’re feeling good and not having the life struggle to try to figure out where they’re going to get food or the money to do it,” Westbrook told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.
Juarez said some of the $ 300,000 in grants was used to hire a counselor and a nurse, as well as a resource navigator who meets with parents at First Refuge Ministries in Sanger and helps them navigate how to get resources they need.
Some people online criticized the store’s scoring system for trading the necessary help for good deeds. Love said some people have asked about the points system. His answer, he said, is: No one is turned away.
“If anyone needs anything, I’ll go beyond myself,” he said. “And I would even deliver the groceries to their house if I needed them.”
Anyone who criticizes the program does not understand it, Juarez said.
“Everyone gets points,” Juarez said. “If you do not want to use your points, you can donate your points.”
Love said he was “very intentional and strategic” in expecting students to go through the grocery store.
“If everyone does it, it takes away the embarrassment,” he said.
Juarez said he has spoken to school officials in other states, including California, Delaware, North Carolina and Oregon, who want to take the approach to addressing food safety and that he offered his help because he wants it to rise. .
“If the school district can be so important, we can change a community,” he said. “And if we can change a community, we can change an area. And if we change an area, we can change the state.” If we can change the state, we can change the country. If we can change the country, we can change the world. ‘