Community Partnerships
Open Teacher Supply Warehouse

Only an educator can appreciate having a free pass to go shopping for needed school supplies like pencils and paper, and that’s what happened with the opening of the Teacher Supply Warehouse last fall. The initial brainchild of Cecilia Adams, Manager of Community Partnerships, the Teacher Supply Warehouse, which currently serves Title 1 schools, is making a lot of folks happy. The joint effort involves local businesses, non-profits and individuals who came together for the common cause of helping teachers receive needed materials in their classrooms so they can teach effectively. 

The idea germinated three years ago when the district began exploring a better way to distribute community donations. “Businesses would want to donate items, and we had no room to store them before distribution to schools,” said Adams. “Now that we have the Teacher Supply Warehouse, our challenge is to get the community to donate supplies at a level that will keep it sustainable.”

Teachers from Peck and Cone Elementary take advantage of free supplies at the Teacher Supply Warehouse.

The momentum for the Teacher Supply Warehouse kicked up when Senator USA, a local specialty pen company, donated seven pallets of pens – that’s roughly 485,000 pens! The story of this donation gave birth to a community partnership comprised of GCS, the Guilford Education Alliance, the Welfare Reform Liaison Project, Leadership Greensboro and the Junior League of Greensboro. These groups worked together to make the Teacher Supply Warehouse a reality.
Partnerships with educational advocates like Guilford Education Alliance, a non-profit organization that supports public education, are crucial.  “This is a wonderful collaboration among community leaders and a worthy cause that we are pleased to participate in,” said Margaret Arbuckle, executive director of Guilford Education Alliance. “We have an ongoing need for volunteers to work in the warehouse during open hours, to assist with re-stocking supplies and to promote the Teacher Supply Warehouse to businesses in the community for donations of materials.”

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Business partners like Bart Wiley, commercial banker at First Citizens, explains that his involvement is a result of community awareness.  “As a member of Leadership Greensboro, I was asked to take part in a community-based project,” said Wiley. “I immediately saw my calling to help with the Teacher Supply Warehouse.  It helps build a stronger community in four distinct ways:  by growing available resources, growing the learning environment, growing teacher recruitment and retention and helping the environment by recycling materials through the community. The project has brought together human capital from the areas of for-profit business, non-profit organizations and public education. What a win! “

Manpower to operate the warehouse was a critical component to the project, as was an actual location to house the supplies. That’s when Reverend Odell Cleveland and the Welfare Reform Liaison Project stepped in. The faith-based non-profit organization has not only supplied 5,000 square feet of warehouse space, but also provides staffing. “We are a community, meaning ‘common unity,’ so we pull together to make it happen for teachers,” said Cleveland. “We have to make Greensboro a better place, and we all have the responsibility to give back.  We don’t worry about who gets credit for helping, but we do want to pay it forward.”

The people who benefit the most from this project are teachers, and Gillian Hill, fourth-grade teacher at Washington Elementary, couldn’t be happier about the Teacher Supply Warehouse. “It is a wonderful opportunity to restock on supplies that we use daily,” said Hill. “We go through a lot of erasers, crayons, paper, pencils, pencil sharpeners, Kleenex and everyday supplies, and the warehouse has a good range of usable consumables that meet teacher and student needs. I was excited to get binders, which are expensive to buy, and it will help me to stay organized. This is an ongoing need, so I am thrilled.”

The warehouse is open to Title 1 schools from 3 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Currently, Title 1 schools have scheduled shopping days. For more information go to http://www.gcsnc.com/teacher_warehouse/index.html.

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After choosing the supplies they want, volunteers help teachers at the “check stand.”