Education Partnership helps give away school supplies to teachers and school districts

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) —  For years, the Education Partnership and their Resource Center has been providing school supplies to under resourced schools across our region.

And this year, they are on track for to give away over $10 million in school supplies — and that includes everything from pens and pencils to desks and chairs.

Since 2009, the Education Partnership here in Pittsburgh has been making a huge difference for both students, teachers, and school staffs around Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Since their inception, this 501(c)(3) charity has donated over $50 million in school supplies to under resourced schools. This year, that’s 191 schools in the region, getting everything from binders and books, to paper, glue and even snacks.

The qualifier to get these supplies, the school must have 70% or more of its student population on the National School Lunch Program.

“Every year, any school in Southwestern PA where at least 70% of the students are eligible for the national school lunch program, they apply ever year to be part of our program and once they are in the program every full-time employee from that school gets a log in to our website to come visit our shopping center once per semester,” said Josh Whiteside, Executive Director at the Education Partnership

At the resource center, donated items come in and go out quickly. Between July and April, the resource center sees roughly, twenty teachers an hour, five hours a day.

In August, South Allegheny School District Middle School teacher Jennifer Wachs was shopping at the resource center and she says that this organization is invaluable to the schools and teachers it serves.

“It means the world to us and our teachers and everybody who shops here,” Wachs said. “Besides all the companies and organizations that back the Education Partnership, the staff here is unbelievable. They are so nice and they are so responsive to our needs. When I need something and I have a dream that I have dreamed up, a wish list, I email them and within an hour or so back, ‘sure, we have that for you’ or ‘we will find that for you.”

For more information about the Education Partnership, click here.