When you see kids walking to school in the early morning, it’s difficult to watch, but when we witnessed them without a jacket, it made us take notice. How many kids needed a jacket in our community? How many children continue to do without the daily essentials?
We decided to investigate this and met with several nonprofit leaders in various communities. We wanted their opinion and wanted to know first-hand what the children of our communities were facing.
We know from statistics that the latest findings are that 17% of California children live below the poverty threshold ($25,465 income for a family of 4). One in eight kids live in a household with less than $12,732, also for a family of 4.
We didn’t need statistics to witness kids walking to school without a jacket and we just had to act. With our nonprofit suppliers we scoured their inventory and raised enough money to purchase and distribute 1,000 jackets to these kids. Many of them were so surprised at their good fortune and many told us they never had a “new” jacket before. Most were satisfied with second-hand jackets from friends and older family members.