Dollar General Literacy Foundation Renews National Sponsorship of The Kids in Need Foundation's Second Responder® Program
MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kids In Need Foundation (KINF) announced today the Dollar General Literacy Foundation will be the National Sponsor of the Second Responder® program for the second consecutive year. The program is dedicated to providing free school supplies to students and teachers across the country impacted by natural disasters. To complement the efforts of first responders who provide immediate needs such as food and water, The Kids In Need Foundation Second Responder® program provides essential items including pencils, pens, and notebooks– allowing students to return to class with confidence.
As National Sponsor, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation will continue to work with KINF to visit communities impacted by devastating hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, tornadoes and other natural disasters. The partnership provides backpacks filled with school supplies and books to students to ensure they can continue learning in the aftermath of disaster.
"We believe ensuring educational continuity is an important goal when recovering from a natural disaster, and our sponsorship is dedicated to helping support this effort," said Denine Torr, Dollar General's senior director of community initiatives. "By providing school supplies to students and classroom supplies to teachers, we hope to ease some of the stress of the recovery process and help students and teachers get back on track with their learning goals."
In the last 12 months alone, the program has provided much-needed school supplies for students impacted by natural disasters including Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and tornadoes in New Orleans and Fairfield, Alabama. For example, the program provided backpacks, glue sticks, markers and more for students in multiple school districts in the southeast Texas region and KINF'S Teacher Resource Centers in Houston and Beaumont in the weeks and months following Hurricane Harvey. This back to school season, thousands of students still attending schools in the FEMA trailers will benefit from new supplies.
"We deeply value our ongoing partnership with The Dollar General Literacy Foundation, and we are thankful that we can help students, teachers and communities most in need," said Renay Dossman, executive director of The Kids In Need Foundation. "Our mission is to provide students with the tools they need to succeed in the classroom, and we are pleased we can provide a sense of normalcy and comfort following a natural disaster."
The Kids In Need Foundation Second Responder® program works with local authorities, schools and select sponsors to help kids return to normal routines. Since school is oftentimes a place where many children find solace following a natural disaster, the KINF works closely with local authorities to replenish much-needed school supplies. Since its inception, the program has:
- Provided thousands of backpacks filled with new school supplies directly to affected students
- Worked with several Fortune 500 companies to expand efforts to bring school supplies to affected schools and students
- Launched a new program to provide teacher totes to help impacted teachers with supplies.
The Kids In Need Foundation and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation have a long history of partnering to serve schools. As a previous supporter of KINF's Second Responder® program, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation became the first-ever National Sponsor in 2017.
For more information about The Kids In Need Foundation Second Responder® program visit: https://www.kinf.org/programs/secondresponder/
About The Kids In Need Foundation
The Kids In Need Foundation's mission is to ensure that every child is prepared to learn and succeed in the classroom by providing free school supplies nationally to students most in need. The Kids In Need Foundation, a national 501(c)(3) charitable organization founded in 1995, has distributed $1 Billion in school supplies, directly benefiting 6.2 million students and 200,000 teachers in 2017. For more information, visit KINF.org, and join us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: @KidsInNeed
About The Dollar General Literacy Foundation
Since its inception in 1993, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded more than $154 million in grants to nonprofit organizations, helping more than ten million individuals of all ages take their first steps toward literacy or continued education. In addition to grant making, the Foundation supports literacy referrals efforts. Referrals to organizations in your local community that provide free literacy services are available here or are available through a postage-paid reply card that is available at the cash register of every Dollar General store. To learn more, visit www.dgliteracy.org.
Media Contact:
Mary Lester
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SOURCE The Kids In Need Foundation
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