By NewsLine Staff
mail@floridanewsline.com
What if someone told you that by keeping gently used shoes out of landfills you were helping to create sustainable jobs in developing nations around the globe? This year, as the spring cleaning season and Earth Day approaches, Twin Lakes Academy Elementary School’s Green Team joins the nonprofit Soles4Souls to help them in their mission to do just that, through the campaign “Give Shoes. Give Love. Go Green!”
Green Team members have launched a drive to keep 100 pairs of shoes out of landfills and instead help those less fortunate around the globe. Used and new shoes can be dropped off before April 15 at 8000 Point Meadows Rd., Jacksonville, Fl 32256.
The Council for Textile Recycling estimates that the average US citizen throws out 70 lbs. of textiles every year, which adds up to 21 billion pounds of post-consumer textile waste annually. Meanwhile, 767 million people around the world live on less than $1.90 a day. That’s where Soles4Souls comes in. The nonprofit social enterprise provides entrepreneurs in places like Haiti and Honduras with repurposed shoes and clothing, otherwise destined for landfills, to help them start and sustain small businesses. Soles4Souls estimates that the sale of one pair of shoes can generate enough income to provide fivemeals for a family in Haiti. The sale of 20 pairs of shoes can help pay for a child’s annual school tuition in Honduras.
“Twin Lakes Academy Elementary School’s Green Team is thrilled to work with Soles4Souls through the Give Shoes Give Love Go Green Initiative,” said Lani Freeman, co-sponsor of the Green Team. “To know that we can all make a difference by simply cleaning out our closets and donating new and gently used shoes we no longer want is easy to understand and incredibly empowering at the same time.”
For more information, contact Lani Freeman at Twin Lakes Academy Elementary School at freemanh@duvalschools.org or (904) 538-0238 x 1214.
About Soles4Souls: Soles4Souls disrupts the cycle of poverty by creating jobs and providing relief through the distribution of shoes and clothing around the world. Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., the organization repurposes product to supply its micro-enterprise, disaster relief and direct assistance programs. Since 2006, it has distributed more than 30 million pairs of shoes in 127 countries. A nonprofit social enterprise, Visit soles4souls.org for more information.
