On the ground floor of Hillsborough Education Foundation’s offices in the historic El Centro Español de West Tampa building, there’s a store where school supply shopping is always in season and the prices can’t be beat.
HEF’s Teaching Tools Resource Center is stocked with pencils, paper, pens, notebooks, markers, crayons, books, glue, dry-erase markers, scissors, folders, erasers, backpacks, etc. You name it, they probably have it. And it’s all free for Hillsborough County Public Schools teachers and instructional staff and teachers from Title 1 charter schools so they don’t have to dig into their own pockets as much to buy supplies for students in need.
Hillsborough Education Foundation President and CEO Anna Corman says the program fills a significant community need in a school district where a significant number of the more than 220,000 students are considered economically disadvantaged and a state that ranks last in the country for average teacher pay.
Hillsborough public school teachers and instructional staff like guidance counselors and social workers can go "shop" at the Teaching Tools Resource Center up to twice a semester and four times a school year. During the 2023-24 school year, the store distributed more than $3.4 million in school supplies and classroom materials to more than 3,100 teachers, averaging out to $475 per teacher per trip.
“If you see it at back-to-school shopping, you’ll find it in the store,” Corman says. “And those are all consumable items. As students use those items throughout the
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Courtesy Hillsborough Education FoundationHillsborough County Public Schools teachers and instructional staff may "shop" free at the Teaching Tools Resource Center up to twice a semester and four times a school year.school year, they often need to be replenished. And for many families in our community, it’s an expense that they just can’t afford. We believe that every student, regardless of their zip code, their family income, or whatever their situation is, should have the tools they need to be successful in school. And we don’t believe that teachers should be the ones covering that expense. Unfortunately, Florida ranks 50th in the nation for average teacher pay. So teachers who are already not making a really high salary often will go into their own pocket to purchase school supplies if they know their students don’t have what they need. We just don’t think that’s right. So the store is there as a resource for teachers, so one, it doesn’t have to come out of their own pocket, and two, so all of the students in their classroom have those tools. Any student who is at a school and wants to learn should have the pencils, the paper, and everything they need to be fully engaged in learning. That’s something that the community can support through the store.”
Summer supply drive season
The community can show that support this summer by donating to or launching a supply drive to stock the store for back-to-school shopping. HEF relies on these donation drives, which range from drop-off locations at local businesses to large collection events at Tampa Bay Rays and Tampa Bay Rowdies games, for the bulk of the store’s inventory.
Supply drive season typically kicks off in July and runs to September or October. But this year’s drive has an earlier June start because of concern and uncertainty over the impact that higher tariffs on China will have on school supply prices.
“We’re concerned about the impact that tariffs may have from a couple of different perspectives,” Corman says. “For your average family getting ready to go back to school, the cost of supplies might be higher. More than 60 percent of the children in Hillsborough County Public Schools are considered economically disadvantaged, so I’m worried a lot of families won’t be able to afford the core supplies that their students need. If that happens, then naturally teachers are also going to be feeling the pressure of the need to have more school supplies. They might feel like they need to come out of pocket even more so than they normally do to make sure that their kids have what they need. So I think the need for the store is going to be greater than ever. For us, we rely on our school supply drives to stock the store, and our community partners might also have a hard time finding enough supplies to donate, or the cost of those supplies might be higher. In light of everything going on, I think the need for the supply drive is going to be greater, so we’re really coming out strong this year. We’re starting weeks earlier than we normally do and encouraging folks to have an early start to their supply drives, so we can make sure we have enough to keep the store stocked.”
The annual Tampa Bay School Supply Drive that HEF and Pinellas Education Foundation partner on has donation drop-off events scheduled June 25th at the Tampa Bay Rowdies game, July 18th at the Tampa Bay Rays game, and August 1st at both HEF’s offices and Pinellas Education Foundation’s.
HEF also shares
information on its website and social media on how to launch a drive, collect donations, and get those school supplies to the store by pick-up or drop-off.
“If anyone is interested in doing a supply drive, the need is definitely great this year,” Corman says.
Small team, big impact
A nonprofit group called A Gift for Teaching started and operated the free store for teachers at a different location in Tampa. A 2006 merger made it part of HEF. Since then, the program has grown to reach more schools, classrooms, and students.
HEF Director of Teacher Resource Program Natalie Doig manages the school supply store and its warehouse. Doig joined HEF approximately three years ago after a long career in retail. Everything in the Teaching Tools Resource Center might be free, but Doig still brings that retail perspective to the job.
“It’s like any business, it’s just getting them in the door the first time,” she says. “It’s hard to get the teachers to see the value until they make the trip and see that it’s worth it. That’s our biggest hurdle. It’s definitely a worthwhile trip for them. Usually, once they’ve come and seen what we have to offer, they come back. My advice is make the trip, get some free stuff for your classroom.”
The store is open for shopping on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons and two Saturdays a month. Teachers at 55 schools in outlying areas of Hillsborough are also able to order online and have supplies delivered to their school. Dry erase markers and pencils - the store had distributed 355,000 through April - are in particular demand but the
list of 20 most-needed items is a checklist of standard school supplies.
Doig says the whole operation runs on 4 ½ full-time staff positions and a dedicated group of volunteers. There are volunteer groups from local businesses who work in the warehouse in the heat of summer, sorting pallets of crayons and notebooks collected during the supply drive. There are solo volunteers who have been coming two to three days a week for 20 years to help stock the store and volunteers who assist and check out teachers during shopping hours. And the store gets busy. Doig says one afternoon in May, 66 teachers came to shop in three hours.
Shifting tariffs, uncertain impact
HEF has a small budget to purchase supplies throughout the year and make sure the store doesn’t run out of our core items. When Doig placed the first order for next school year in May, tariffs had already bumped prices higher. She says HEF’s vendor Bay Sales, a national school supply seller located in Pennsylvania, “is trying to soften the blow for us because we’re a nonprofit.”
“They’re trying to phase in price increases so it does not hit us all at once, and so we can proactively buy before prices get higher,” Doig says.
Bay Sales Director of Operations Alexis Verlezza says the family-owned importer and distributor has been in business more than 30 years and works with nonprofits, resource centers and retailers across the country. As an importer, the company directly pays tariffs as merchandise comes into the country. The bulk of the school supplies come from China and Verlezza says shifting tariffs on imports from that country have created an ever-changing, uncertain business climate where it’s difficult to plan ahead or offer price stability.
“We have been slowly increasing our prices by taking a price average merging approach that uses what we have in inventory, what is coming in, and the tariff percentage it is coming in at,” she says.
Speaking in early June, Verlezza says tariffs still in place from President Donald Trump’s first administration and tariffs imposed this year have, at that time, combined for an effective tariff rate of 55 percent on most imports from China. If trade talks don’t produce a deal, the steep 145 percent tariff on Chinese imports that Trump imposed in April, then paused for 90 days in May, could be back in effect just as school starts in August.
Verlezza says she fields calls and emails daily from nonprofits and other customers asking for the latest information on the tariff and pricing situation.
“I try to be as transparent as possible with my customers and tell them every day what’s happening, what’s changed,” she says. “They understand, which is really nice. They know what’s going on. It doesn’t make it any easier. But they understand that I don’t want this to happen. I don’t want to raise prices and we’re trying to be as fair as possible.”
Meeting the need
Doig expects any significant increase in school supply prices will mean a significant increase in need at the Teaching Tools Resource Center.
“More teachers will come here and utilize us,” she says. “If it becomes harder on the parents, it’s going to fall back on the teachers, which it already does in many cases. I think there’s going to be a bigger need for the teachers to come here than there has been in years past.”
That growing need would come at a time when HEF’s school supply purchasing budget doesn’t go as far as it used to, making this summer’s school supply drive all the more important.
“The supply drive season is always amazing and active and full of events,” Doig says. “But based on what could be coming in the next year, I would venture to say this is going to be our biggest need year so far.”
For more information, go to Teaching Tools Resource Center and Donate school supplies