Texas High School Opens Grocery Store For Food-Insecure Students

One Texas high school made a grocery store for food-insecure students and their families. The students can use a point system where points are accumulated from doing good deeds.

Linda Tutt High School created the grocery store in an empty room. Texas Health, Albertsons grocery store, and First Refuge Ministries, reported CBS DFW.

Principal Anthony Love said, "How often can a school say they have a grocery store inside their walls?"

The students won't need money to shop here.

Love said, "A lot of our students, they come from low socioeconomic families. It’s a way for students to earn the ability to shop for their families. Through hard work you can earn points for positive office referrals. You can earn points for doing chores around the building or helping to clean."

Executive Director of Firs Refuge Ministries Paul Juarez explained how the point system works. He said, "These points were actually given by the students, so we walked through here and decided that a can of green beans was one point. It gives us a picture of what can be. So if we can do this inside other schools it will do a whole lot to help other small towns."

The students will learn how to run a grocery store, including when to have sales if there is an excess of a product and what to expect in a job.

Sanger's City Manager Thomas Muir stated, "We all had our first jobs and it taught us how to work, and what you got for your work."

There will be food drives weekly for the community to help supplement other food insecurity programs in the area.

Photo: Getty Images

Sources: CBD DFW and CBS 47