Above, a shopper at Johnson’s Foods Grocery store puts a receipt in the “Tools 4 Schools” box. Each dollar from receipts dropped in this box converts into one point for I.S.D. 166. At the end of March the points are added up and the school will order a variety of gym equipment, note books, pencils, drawing paper, computers and other items that are needed for the classrooms and gym classes. Sometimes it pays to shop in more ways than one. Staff photo/Brian Larsen
Every time shoppers at Johnson’s grocery store drop their grocery receipts in the orange cardboard box marked “Tools 4 Schools,” the kids at I.S.D. 166 benefit.
SpartanNash, a Midwest wholesale grocery distributor and retailer, along with grocery stores they supply who agree to participate in the “Tools 4 Schools” program, partner in the effort.
Schools must sign up and appoint a school coordinator to retrieve the receipts from the box. The coordinator adds up the points and turns them into program headquarters. Once enough points have been acquired, a school can “purchase” an item for their school.
Receipts are collected starting September 1 through March 2 each year.
In Cook County, Cindi Crawford, who is a secretary at I.S.D. 166, collects the receipts. “I pick them up, and my mother (Nancy) counts the points and adds them up for me,” said Crawford.
In 2019, I.S.D. 166 was able to purchase a brand new MacAir laptop.
In 2018, K-12 assistant principal Mitch Dorr said proceeds from those receipts allowed the school to acquire kick balls, footballs, and gym equipment for the elementary and outdoor playground. Crawford noted that over the four years the program has been in operation, the school received the flat screen T.V. mounted in the hallway everyone sees when they come through the Eagle doors.
“The school has also received large color pencil kits and equally large crayon kits, craft items, big paintbrushes for the younger kids, dry erasers, whiteboards for the kids, pencils, drawing paper, scooters for gym, and bean bags, to name some of the many items we have received through this initiative,” Crawford said.
“The program is very easy,” said Robin Johnson, who co-owns Johnson’s Foods grocery store with her husband, Mark. “Shoppers just put their receipts in the box, and then the school collects them and turns the points into SpartanNash, our distribution center. We pay two to seven percent of the actual cost of the items the school gets. This beats clipping coupons and sending them in for the school. It’s a great program, and we are glad to be part of it.”
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