Serving 90,000 Children | Founded in 2000
Empowering children in need to succeed in school by providing free essential tools for learning.
The KidSmart Free Store is a community-wide, educational resource to support 90,000 local children who are at the greatest risk of failing in our educational system. Each day throughout the school year, the KidSmart Free Store is open for teachers to “shop” for free supplies and educational materials for their students in need.
KidSmart remains today the only Free Store in the state of Missouri. 90,000 St. Louis area students are living in poverty and attending a high poverty school… enough children to fill Busch Stadium Twice. In 2016, eight (8) cornerstone, financial partners made it possible for KidSmart to launch a new mobile unit: KidSmart On the Go!. The Dana Brown Charitable Trust championed the dream of the KidSmart On the Go! program with a generous gift in 2015. This school year, KidSmart On the Go! will deliver an additional $1 million in free school supplies into the hands 17,000+ students in 918 classrooms in 37 schools in 3 high need communities (Ferguson-Florissant, Normandy, and Jennings).
Thanks to key partnerships with partners, such as The Dana Brown Charitable Trust, the KidSmart Free Store has grown exponentially since 2002. KidSmart operates with a small staff of ten (10) and an army of volunteers. The organization has built a strong community-wide collaboration with the generosity of individuals, foundations, and corporations. This support has enabled KidSmart to distribute more than $44 million in educational materials to 150,000+ of economically disadvantaged students in the greater metropolitan area over the past fourteen years!
Every time KidSmart On the Go! pulls up to a school, the students receive an incredible gift of $30,000 in free school supplies! The KidSmart On the Go! program expands the reach and capacity of the KidSmart Free Store, enables KidSmart to meet 100% of the need for students in the 918 classrooms and will grow distribution by 25%, this school year, alone!
