About Us-
The Good Deed Grocery
We are happy to help!
The Good Deed Grocery is a FREE Grocery and General Store for students of International Preparatory High School in Buffalo, NY.
We receive our food items from FeedMoreWNY and community partners. We fundraise to purchase personal hygiene items and to provide other daily essentials students may need.
The Good Deed Grocery is a FREE Grocery Store for students that is housed in the International Preparatory High School, PS 198 in Buffalo, NY.
The mission of the Good Deed Grocery is to help fill student need outside of school so students are able to have a Good Day each and every day!
This program is part of the Buffalo Public Schools Career and Technical Education program at International Preparatory High School. Our grocery store is student-run and student-staffed, all for the benefit of our students! We believe that every student deserves to have a good day every day!
The Good Deed Grocery is proud to have partnered with FeedMoreWNY and Rich Products to help bring FREE food and support to students of International Preparatory High School!
Students can shop online or during the school day to place orders. Parents can place orders for pickup as well!
WGRZ Channel 2
Thank you to Alexandra Rios for covering the Good Deed Grocery's participation as a Mayor's Summer Youth work site. We are proud to continue to serve our community's food needs over summer and offer students valuable work based learning opportunities throughout the year!
Buffalo Magazine
The Good Deed Grocery has been thankful for Buffalo Magazine's support in our growth! During Summer School Buffalo Magazine journalist Schondra Aytch and photojournalist Joshua Thermidor spent 2 days learning about the Good Deed Grocery and photographing our students in action. Joshua even took the time to show our students the ropes of professional photography. We appreciate the time they spent learning about our program and look forward to them returning to see our student leaders in action! Article Link
Our first distribution event was of Personal Care Packages in November of 2021. We helped over 40 students by providing soap, shampoo, deodorant, body wash, feminine products, toothbrush, toothpaste and more! Since then we have distributed over $1000 in personal care items to students in need during the 2021-2022 school year!
Through the Good Deed Grocery and the Good Eats Cafe students learn safe food handling skills and are able to demonstrate their kitchen skills.
Students will be pursuing Serv Safe Certification as well as visiting local restaurants and colleges to learn more about opportunities in food-based business!
Our grand opening took place in March of 2022. In the three months we were open during the school year we stocked over 7.8 TONS of food for the benefit of our school community. We also helped students to obtain hundreds of community service hours needed for graduation in New York State.
In November of 2021, The Good Deed Grocery assisted NFL Player and school alumni Steven Means to distribute FREE Thanksgiving turkeys to the students of International Preparatory High School. Mr. Means continues to support the community from which he graduated with generous donations each year to assist students in need.
Christmas Socks: A true story of impact
Early during 1st period, the classroom phone rang. "Mrs. Kent, do you have any socks in the Good Deed Grocery? A student forgot to put them on this morning."
I responded "Sure, let me run down. Have him meet me in room 26."
I appointed a homeroom leader, ran out the door, down the four flights of stairs to the basement. The student was waiting by the door. I ran to our Grocery Store Room and began to sort through bags.
I said "I know I have some in here, I'm not sure what they are, but we will have some for you."
He stated "Thanks, Miss. I was washing the dishes and the bus came and I ran out of the house without them."
At the bottom of a bag I found a pair of women's Christmas socks. I showed them to him and apologetically said "This is all we have, I'm sorry."
He stretched out his arm, and I looked up at his 6 ft 4 frame. He said "Miss, this is better than nothing. Thank you so much."
I ran back up to room 322, tears in my eyes and knew what we were doing with the Good Deed Grocery would change our school for the better.
How the Good Deed Grocery @ I-Prep Came to Be
This program grew from a wide array of experiences and a great love for our students and community.
We would like to give credit where credit is due. This idea sparked by after a program featured on Good Morning America during the stay-home order at a school in Texas.
See the story here: www.goodmorningamerica.com/food/story/high-school-run-grocery-store-food-insecure-students-74584272
This came to life this school year as Ms. Kent worked with students to identify needs in their community and the idea to open a free grocery store for students was born.
This idea was shared with Natalie Houck, a Teacher on Special Assignment. at I-Prep, who shared the resources she obtained for our community from Bombas.
Together, we have worked with our incredibly supportive administrators and the generous staff of International Preparatory High School in Buffalo, NY to garner partnerships to fill student needs.
As we grow, we can't wait to help each student have the best school day possible, each and every day!
{Note: There are no qualifiers to participate in our program. Every student can shop for FREE!}