BOISE — The Boise School District has over 750 users that are meeting needs for students, and over 200 needs have been met.
Eleven social workers across the Boise School District are posting needs for their students on an app called Purposity — ranging from a pair of shoes to a high school level math calculator.
"The popular thing coming in right now is snow boots, and winter coats, that sort of thing, mittens gloves, so it has been a tremendous response from our community," said school social worker Scott Crandell.
Over 200 needs have been met thanks to their 758 users. Once a user donates for the item, it’s shipped by Amazon Prime, so it takes only a few days as opposed to months to get a new pair of shoes, or whatever they need.
“Purposity doesn’t often fill with the name brand things, they’re okay with doing something that's like a name brand, but it’s not for that reason, it is for true basic needs for our students, like school supplies," said Crandell.
The app says there are over 6,000 supporters in Idaho, and over 1,600 students have had their needs met. Idaho currently ranks second in the nation for usage, only behind Georgia.
For the Boise School District, providing these needs means students can focus more on school, but there are still some needs the app can't support, like utilities and power bills.
"Other agencies, even our school district, has a safe fund where funds from the community are helpful in helping to keep power on, and gas turned on, so kids are warm, and if they’re warm they can focus on doing homework and that sort of thing, so if they don’t have heat that impacts their ability to learn at school," said Crandell.
