Food & Clothing Donations

March 2017

United Way and the African American Leadership group work together to supply food and coats for the boys participating in the CISGG AAMI program. This year, the United Way partnered with Proctor & Gamble to provide a generous donation of food and toiletries, including toothpaste, lotion, soap, and feminine products. P&G contributed 7,500 trail mix snack packs and over 7,000 toiletry kits. The Volunteer Center of Greensboro and United Way of Greater Greensboro co-facilitated the project. As a result, CISGG received several donations for The Wiley Food Pantry. Moreover, the United Way and the African American Leadership group supplied AAMI with 100 coats for the boys.

Along with the incredible donations received from the United Way partnership, CISGG has increased its ability to provide basic food needs to students through a partnership with BackPack Beginnings. This year we're proud to say that we were able to start providing food to families at Smith, Dudley, Wiley and Jackson through BackPack Beginnings. At the elementary level, the students are provided with backpacks, filled with food, for them to take home with them over the weekend. At the middle and high school levels, students receive food from the food pantries once a week for them and their families. This partnership enables CISGG to address one of the most desperate needs of students and their families; food.

Another incredible food donation conducted for CISGG was led by David Olds, the son of Shelley Olds, CISGG AAMI mentor. David was recently inspired by the amount of families that are helped abroad, yet not helped in our immediate communities. Due to this awareness, he sought out to execute a tremendous food drive for Wiley, named "Wiley's Warriors." David Olds, along with his classmates at SouthWest High School in Guilford County collected over 3,000 food items for Wiley Elementary.

In regard to our amazing clothing donations, we must recognize one of our most significant partnerships, that with AT&T Pioneers. For the last 10 years, AT&T has donated coats to CISGG. Thanks to Mr. John Ward, CISGG once again benefited from the kindness and consideration of the AT&T Pioneers with a donation of 250 winter coats.

Another major clothing donation that we received this year was from the Strasser Family. Aaron Strasser and his family donated 9,500 dollars to CISGG for the purchase of coats and shoes for our students!!! We have purchased and distributed 238 coats and 136 pairs of shoes, thanks to a very heady staff and the cooperation of our school and community partners such as Black Child Development and Guilford Child Development. Our friends at VF have promised to match the gift to enable us to meet clothing and other urgent needs year-round.

This year we're also very proud of a clothing resource available to many of our students at Dudley, provided by one of our dedicated volunteers, Dot Timmons. The "Panther Boutique" as she has so perfectly named it, is a collection of clothing donations by Dudley Alumni, students and volunteers. The "Panther Boutique" provides clothing for students. It addresses the need of clothing for students who have come to school dressed inappropriately for school, which often sends them into In-School-Suspension, and allows students to stock up on needed clothes to take home.

For more information, please go to www.cisgg.org. To donate, please click on the link: Donate!