GREENSBORO, N.C. — *Editor's Note: The above video promotes Winston-Salem's "Stuff the Shoe" event.
Parents are taking their students back-to-school shopping as Triad schools prepare for their first full year back in classrooms since the start of the pandemic.
Students aren't the only ones that need school supplies, though.
Adopt-A-Classroom is a nonprofit organization that helps fund K-12 classrooms. The organization estimates teachers spent an average of $745 on school supplies for the 2019-2020 school year.
Those expenses include classroom decorations and standard supplies such as pens, pencils and paper.
There are school supplies warehouses in the Triad helping teachers go back to school without denting their budgets.
Guilford Education Alliance operates the Teacher Supply Warehouse to offset those costs. The warehouse is located at 311 Pomona Drive, Suite E in Greensboro. GEA has a list of most-needed items on their page, and donors can drop off those items by making an appointment with the Warehouse Manager. Email the manager at tsw@geanc.org or by calling 336-841-4332.
Teachers can pick specific days to shop at the warehouse. They'll need their GCS I.D. for appointments.
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School teachers can shop at the Educator Warehouse, located at Diggs-Latham Elementary School.
The warehouse is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30 - 5:30 p.m., and the first and third Saturdays of each month from 9:00 - 11:00 a.m.
Teachers need to sign up online to visit the warehouse on any given day. Teachers are allowed four visits per school year.
Rockingham County Schools operates The Rock Shop. The Rock Shop accepts donated school supplies, as well as monetary supplies. A list of the most-needed supplies can be found here.
The Rock Shop operates from four high schools. Each high school is a distribution hub to the feeder schools in their zone. Beginning teachers are given first priority before orders are filled countywide.
The warehouse is sponsored by Rockingham County Schools and Rockingham County Education Foundation. If you'd like to donate, you can arrange a drop off time with Angela Martin by emailing her at amartin2@rock.k12.nc.us.
Checks and donations can be mailed to:
The Rockingham County Education Foundation
124 South Scales Street, Reidsville, N.C. 27320