Being a teacher can be a thankless and sometimes heartbreaking job. Unfortunately, teachers have to witness their students come into their classroom without being fed, washed, or properly clothed.
This is why teachers often go the extra mile to make sure their kids are healthy and happy.
All too often they end up by buying supplies or food for them with money out of their own pockets. But one teacher came up with a creative solution to make sure that her students are well cared for.
A Redditor, who goes by Terevok, explained the creative idea that his wife, who is a kindergarten teacher, and her colleagues came up with.
“Wife is a kindergarten teacher. A couple of the teachers started a ‘comfort closet’ at her school for needy kids to get hygiene supplies and clothes. All donation based,” the Redditor wrote.
Basically, the comfort closet consists of a shelf with tons of supplies like toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, and feminine hygiene products on it. Students can take what they need when they need it.
These teachers are solving a very real problem for students. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, more than 41 percent of children, or 72.4 million children, under the age of 18 in the U.S. are low-income children and 19 percent are considered to be poor.
“This means that children are overrepresented among our nation’s poor; they represent 23 percent of the population but comprise 32 percent of all people in poverty. Many more children live in families with incomes just above the poverty threshold,” the National Center for Children in Poverty says.
“Being a child in a low-income or poor family does not happen by chance. Parental education and employment, race/ethnicity, and other factors are associated with children’s experience of economic insecurity.”
Terevok’s post was viewed more than 1.5 million times. Many shared their experiences with poverty as a child and/or applauded these teachers for protecting their students.
“My friend teaches in a low-income area elementary school and they have a room with donated items like this and they also include clothes. Some of these kids simply don’t have clean properly fitting clothes to wear,” wrote one Redditor. “The teachers do all of this in a way that saves the child from embarrassment and simply hooks them up so they can hopefully focus on learning in school without at least some of the additional stress they live with.”
“Exactly. I’ve heard stories of kids being so excited to have a new (to them) piece of clothing that didn’t have stains. Heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time,” Terevok said.
“As someone who grew up homeless from age 11-17 I would skip school most of the time because I literally only had 2 shirts and 2 pants for the whole year,” another Redditor commented. “And it was embarrassing. Glad these services out there for others experiencing what I felt. It might be something as not a big deal but for those we been there, the gratitude is endless.”
It’s truly heartwarming to know that students experiencing hardships at home can find some comfort at school thanks to their teachers that love them and truly care about their well being.
You can check out the Reddit post below.
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Wife is a kindergarten teacher. A couple of the teachers started a “comfort closet” at her school for needy kids to get hygiene supplies and clothes. All donation based.
byu/Terevok inpics
