Albertsons Spreads Holiday Cheer in Texas
There are a lot of beautiful stories about communities coming together during the pandemic this holiday season, but only one involves a major food retailer helping a high school open a grocery store.
According to CNN, Linda Tutt High School in Sanger, Texas, has opened a grocery store in so that students can purchase necessities including toilet paper, meat and basic food items. The students pay for their purchases by earning points from good deeds.
"In our school district, there's roughly 2,750 students enrolled and throughout the district 43% of these students are considered economically disadvantaged," Anthony Love, the principal at Linda Tutt, told CNN. "About 3.6% of our students are considered homeless. We thought it was important to support them and their families and make sure they had food on the table."
According to CNN, the school partnered with First Refuge Ministries, Texas Health Resources and the Albertsons Companies to open the store, which is completely run by students who manage the inventory, stock the shelves and help other students find and bag the products they need.
CNN interviewed Preston Westbrook, a junior at the high school who serves as one of the store managers.
"I love this school, I help out in everything we do. And I'm a helper, it's just what I do. I'm here to make sure students get what they need," Westbrook told CNN. "The store helped bring families' spirits up during the pandemic, especially for people who lost family members. The students who come in are just so happy, they always have a smile on their face."
Students in the entire school district, north of Dallas, and their families can buy whatever they need using a number of points, which is initially set depending on the size of their family. After that, students can earn more points for outstanding performance in school, doing good deeds which teachers and staff can award points for, or completing jobs around school such as helping out in the library or mentoring elementary school students.
The store is open Mondays through Wednesdays for students and employees in the school district.
"We are a small school district but we always try to teach our kids the importance of giving back to the community," Love said. "Now school districts all around Texas and the rest of the country are asking how they can start a program like ours, and it's really exciting for us to know our little town is spreading good."
Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons operates 2,252 retail stores with 1,725 pharmacies, 398 associated fuel centers, 22 dedicated distribution centers and 20 manufacturing facilities. The company’s stores predominantly operate under the banners Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Pavilions, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Carrs, Jewel-Osco, Acme, Shaw’s, Star Market, United Supermarkets, Market Street and Haggen. The company is No. 8 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2020 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
