Moorhead High’s APL Project receives $1,000 donation from SpartanNash
April 13, 2017
Moorhead Area Public Schools’ Adaptability and Productivity Lab Project at Moorhead High School recently received a $1,000 donation from SpartanNash through the Direct Your Dollars program.
Direct Your Dollars is offered at more than 150 SpartanNash-owned stores in nine states – including all four Family Fare Supermarkets in Fargo, West Fargo and Moorhead – and gives store customers a way to support their favorite local charities, schools and nonprofit organizations. Each time an eligible organization collects $150,000 in original receipts, they can redeem those receipts for $1,000 from SpartanNash.
Moorhead Family Fare Store Director Mary Holtz presented the $1,000 check to Kevin Anderson, Moorhead Schools occupational therapist and special education teacher, on behalf of SpartanNash and the Direct Your Dollars program. The money will be used to support the Adaptability and Productivity Lab Project.
“We are very thankful for the Direct Your Dollars program,” Anderson said. “Collecting receipts is a great opportunity for students to learn important life skills such as shopping, budgeting, data entry and organization. Our students benefit from real-life learning experiences, and the reward fund is used to create additional learning opportunities in our community.”
The district’s APL Project began in 1998 to address a need for special education students to gain functional life skills through academic instruction.
Initially, healthy snacks were sold in the classroom during breaks in the day and eventually moved to the middle school. Today, the APL Project continues in the high school setting where special fundraising projects occur throughout the school year to support student projects for functional life skills training.
Arhaun Ahmed, a Moorhead High School student who participates in the APL Project, collected the Family Fare Supermarkets receipts for the DYD program.
“I love to go get receipts from Family Fare,” Ahmed said. “Then I work every day to look at every receipt, take out any information that can’t be used, and then I add up all the receipts in a spreadsheet. It takes a lot of time, but I really like it. Once we get all of the totals added up to equal $150,000, I know we get $1,000 to help buy things for many students to improve their transition skills.”
Direct Your Dollars was launched by SpartanNash in August 2016, encouraging store guests to use their purchasing power to support their favorite nonprofits just by shopping at any one of SpartanNash’s locations. Local nonprofit organizations can turn $150,000 in receipts into a $1,000 donation.
The “Direct Your Dollars” section on receipts makes it easier for organizations to compute their receipt totals. Some purchases are excluded from the Direct Your Dollars program, such as tobacco, postage, fuel, gift cards and lottery, and are not included in the “Direct Your Dollars” tally.
“SpartanNash is committed to giving back to the communities where we live and work,” said Meredith Gremel, vice president of corporate affairs and communications for SpartanNash. “The Direct Your Dollars program is one of our many corporate responsibility initiatives, and it’s an easy way for our store guests to partner with us to earn money for their children’s band program, church youth group, VFW hall and more. We are honored to present this donation to the Moorhead Area Public Schools’ APL Project, and we cannot wait to see the difference it will make.”
Categorized under: School