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Under sunny skies, parents and their children waited in a line several blocks long on Ridge Avenue on Thursday to receive free backpacks filled with notebooks, pencils and water bottles.
Sponsors of the annual event were the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) and Donta Rose, owner and operator of Sharswood Grocery Outlet, which celebrated its second anniversary at this location across from PHA headquarters at the corner of 20th and Ridge Avenue in North Philadelphia. About 40 official partners, including PHA police, attended. Grocery Outlet is a national discount supermarket chain and has about half a dozen stores in Philadelphia.
“I’m focused on the community,” Rose said. “I know those faces and I want to make sure the kids in the neighborhood have school bags without having to worry about it. PHA shares that sentiment. We want to make sure all the kids are prepared to go back to school so they can focus on what they need to focus on.”
When Rose opened the store two years ago in PHA’s $52 million Sharswood Ridge Shopping Center and apartment complex, the area was a food desert and hadn’t had a grocery store in about 20 years.
“Everyone was excited that the area had its own grocery store,” Rose said. “We are still thriving and growing, and we plan to keep moving forward.”
The grocery store parking lot became the site of the “Dare to Prepare Block Party” to celebrate the start of the school year in the Philadelphia School District on August 26. There was a DJ playing music, water ice and hot dogs, hamburgers and sausages from the Ugly Plate food truck. Right to Read Philly, the Black Brain Campaign, the Boys and Girls Club of Philadelphia; Educators 4 Education; Philadelphia Job Corps, Pierce College, Temple University’s WELL program and the Navy also had booths at the event offering services.
