Meet Lana Nguyen and Susanna Lau, high school students and co-founders of SupplyHopeInfo, a grassroots organization that distributes school supplies to low-income students. Now in their senior year, the two launched the organization as a way of supporting other low-income students during the pandemic.
“We just saw this need [because of distance learning] and wanted to support other low-income students. We decided ‘hey, let’s just start this’ and everything naturally grew.” -Lana Nguyen
Through SupplyHopeInfo, the two have collected over $37k in donations and distributed school supplies to over 1,400 other low-income students.
“There’s a lot more to SupplyHopeInfo than Susanna and myself,” Lana says. “The team is really the backbone. I just want to appreciate them. We would not be able to get here without them.”
Lana and Susanna, along with the core team of Serena, Timothy, Nancy, Sophia, and Victoria, are all students at George Washington High School. Outside of managing SupplyHopeInfo, the two still look for time to pursue their own interests and work on their own studies. Both girls also help their families with language barriers. Susanna’s family is from Hong Kong and Lana’s family is from Vietnam. The two consider themselves lucky to have a community to support them, and it’s this sense of connection they credit for the organization’s early success.
Lana lives in the Tenderloin and reflects on how this has built her sense of community. “When I first say I live in the Tenderloin, people are often like ‘Ugh…that’s not a good area. That’s where all the homeless people are. But I think about it from a different perspective…They are here because we have resources and places that welcome them. We have churches that give out food every day, we have free mental health resources, we have just so many available resources–versus other neighborhoods that might feel more distant and more residential. The Tenderloin is more community-based.”
“We began initially by targeting friends and families, people that we knew,” Susanna says. “We’re also part of Minds Matter, a low-income college prep program that connected us to adults and other students like us who could use help. We sent emails to our mentors, instructors, pod leaders…they all have a similar mission of helping students. Then we shared on a broader scale, but still through people we knew. Then it started to get some momentum thanks to the community.”
“Funding is one thing,” Lana says, “but building awareness and making sure it’s available to everyone is another thing.”
“The city provides a lot of resources but often the small things are overlooked,” Sussana adds.
“For example, our school provides laptops for students, which is very useful during distance learning, but a lot of students don’t have the basics, like pencils, and notebooks. They have a lot of other concerns. Some students can’t commute to the schools to get the lunches and the food they need.”
“When Susanna and I first started SupplyHopeInfo, [Minds Matter] was our support. But there are way more low-income kids than the thirty that can be supported by this program. We wish there were more programs like this, so no one is left out.”
Despite their recent success, Lana and Susanna still express concern about the students that don’t know how to voice their needs or be heard. They mention students who were supplied laptops but can’t easily access the internet to find resources.
“I wish there was a way to transfer resources and support to these kids. We are now overloaded with resources and feel we could go to college but there are some kids who don’t even know what a food pantry is,” says Lana.
Both are interested in pursuing studies in the science and medical fields and have a wide range of personal interests. They both miss seeing their friends, but are still keeping busy with other ways to enjoy life. Susanna likes to go for walks and play the piano. Lana has been running track since middle school. She’s also interested in personal finance, and other creative pursuits like fashion design and photography.
If you are interested in supporting SupplyHopeInfo you can donate through their website and GoFundMe page. They will order from distributors who deliver directly to their list of low-income students. Supplies are collected and packages are tailored to the needs of the student. For example, a preschool kid would receive crayons, markers and workbooks, while an older student might receive calculators, pens and notebooks.
In line with their vision to reduce barriers to these resources, they also offer an option to donate school supplies instead of giving a monetary donation. “We understand some people can’t donate financially and they’d rather give the supplies, so we wanted to incorporate that into the project too.”
Thank you, SupplyHopeInfo for your awesome work!
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