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Washington, D.C.-The Storehouse Changes Lives With Donated Goods
Every time Jeanette Hill returns from the World Vision Kids In Need Resource Center it’s Christmastime in her classroom of kindergartners. “They were so excited when I put the books on the shelves.They said, ‘Oh boy, new books!’ It’s just like Christmas to them,” said the veteran Washington, D.C., Public Schools teacher.
Although she also takes advantage of the other school supplies provided through the partnership between World Vision and the School, Home, and Office Products Association’s (SHOPA) Foundation for Educational Excellence, it’s books that make a difference in Jeanette’s classroom. As young readers, her students need engaging books that open new worlds to them, liter-ally
and figuratively. With shrinking school budgets, she doesn’t have the funding to buy these books, and she’s worn paths between different libraries, trying to find what she needs.
With monthly visits to the Kids in Need Resource Center, she can stock her classroom’s shelves with colorful educational tools that turn her students into young learners. She appreciates not having to dig in to her own pocketbook for books and school supplies, something that’s been a given for years. Many of her students come from families that simply don’t have the resources to send them to school with the supplies they need to succeed. And it’s not just pencils and paper, but proper clothing.
She hears, “Mama said she doesn’t have the money,” from her young charges.“One day it was cold and one little girl didn’t have socks on . . . some children just don’t have the things we take for granted.”
But thanks to donations from manufacturers and retailers, the shelves in the Kids in Need Resource Center are filled for teachers who work in schools that qualify to take part in the program.The center is open to schools in which at least 70 percent of students receive reduced-fee or free lunches. Last year 3,049 teachers from 228 schools shopped at the center, putting school supplies into the hands of more than 77,600 young students.
Partners Make it Happen
Aside from being home to the Kids in Need Resource Center, The Storehouse of World Vision also serves as a distribution center for clothing, toys, toiletries, and other merchandise donated by hundreds of U.S. merchants and manufacturers. Donors gain not only a tax incentive for their generosity, but the good feeling that comes with making a difference in people’s lives.These items are distributed through partner churches, faith-based organizations, and local agencies, which see that they reach those with the greatest need. These resources are taken for granted by many of us, but can be unheard-of luxuries for some families. New clothing and personal care items boost self-esteem and help ease burdens for families in crisis or in transition, and furniture and office supplies help partner organizations like the Mazique Parent-Child Center serve children and families in the metropolitan area of the nation’s capital.
In the first three quarters of fiscal 2002, nearly 157,000 people in the metro area received some of life’s daily necessities through The Storehouse and its caring partners. Of those served, nearly 136,000 were children.
How You Can Help
World Vision is helping hundreds of faith-based and community organizations in the metropolitan D.C. area to serve their neighbors. You can help us assist these groups with your time and talents as a volunteer, or with your donations. Here’s what your financial support can help accomplish:
• $27,000 will buy a truck to transport life-enhancing gifts to The Storehouse and to distribution sites.
• $10,000 will buy a forklift for the Kids in Need Resource Center.
• $5,000 can be leveraged to provide $50,000 worth of goods for distribution to families in need.
• $1,000 will finance the delivery of three shipments of donated goods to a community in need.
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| Vision Youth Help provide tutoring, life skills training, and a caring relationship to high-risk youth. | | ||
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| The Storehouse Provide school supplies, clothes, toys, household goods and building supplies for strengthening families,schools and neighborhoods. | | ||
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| Tools for Transformation Help provide the organizational, planning and leadership tools to transform a neighborhood. | | ||
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| Read about what is happening in The Storehouse program around the country by clicking on the location name below. |
