Sunday Paper Yippee!

By Stacey Lindsay
October 02, 2021

This School Opened a Free Grocery Store to Help Families in Need For the countless families who struggle to put food on the table each week, school breakfast and lunch programs are a game-changer. Now, one Atlanta-area middle school is doing something even better: They've built a store that's like a mini-Walmart, complete with freezers stocked with fish, burgers, and pizzas, refrigerators filled with eggs and produce, shelves of clothing and toiletries, and even brand-new Adidas and Nike sneakers. 'Even before the pandemic, we had high poverty,” the school's principal told TODAY. 'But the pandemic has really impacted a lot of our families. Our students have gone through a lot. Our kids will say, ‘I didn't eat last night,' or, ‘My lights are cut off,' or, ‘I'm living with my cousin or my auntie because I don't have a place right now.' This store is going to provide them some relief.” To Jasmine Crowe, founder of Goodr (an organization devoted to stopping food waste and hunger), and the rapper Gunna, a former student of this Georgia middle school who helped finance the store, we say thank you…and yippee!

Stacey Lindsay

Stacey Lindsay is a journalist and the author of BEING 40: The Decade of Letting Go—and Embracing Who We Are (from The Open Field).

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