Over the past 19 years, the Highland School Store has given free school supplies to over 115,000 inner-city children in Memphis. Children shop the "World’s Largest School Store" shelves where everything is free. Volunteers fill the young shopper's bag with the school supplies including: pens, pencils, glue, crayons, notebook paper, spiral notebooks, binders, scissors, books and erasers.
The School Store also sponsors a Health Fair for children and adults at the same time and place. Free school physicals and immunizations, dental exams and cleanings, vision and medical screening & treatment is available for children.
The Highland School Store is the oldest and largest school supply giveaway in the country. It is not part of the church budget and is funded entirely through donations by individual church members.
The School Store was started 19 years ago by several church members who teach at Memphis City Schools. They had been buying supplies for some of the needy children in their own class and their Sunday school class heard about it and decided to go to the store and buy the supplies. Other Sunday school classes at Highland Street decided to do the same thing and soon the entire church was bringing supplies to the building. After just a couple years the number of children being served grew from a few dozen to over a thousand.
In 1992 a 2nd location was started at the Downtown Church on Vance Street in Memphis and a few years later a 3rd location was started in Raleigh at the Raleigh Community Church. Today supplies are distributed at 4 different locations in the Memphis area.
Rather than church members bringing bags of supplies, they are bought by the truckload three months in advance. The total cost of the supplies is donated informally by members in Sunday school classes.
Word of this program spread to other churches and similar programs were started all over the US. Many different churches and other organizations across the county will hold "school stores" this August with the same purpose. To make sure children have the supplies they need on the first day of school.